Renting an apartment for families with children and pets is becoming increasingly popular, but it is accompanied by difficulties. In particular, the cost varies significantly from city to city. Find out more about where tenants with pets and children are most likely to rent, and where such ads are less common

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If you've ever rented an apartment or house in Ukraine, you've probably seen ads with “no children” and “no pets” restrictions. These are the most common prohibitions among property owners that pose a serious challenge for tenants with children or pets. This is discussed in the article by LIGA.Life.

How do such restrictions complicate the search for housing, and in which cities of Ukraine are such requirements most common? Read more.

Why are tenants with children and pets denied rent?

Apartment and house owners often specify “no pets” and “no children” requirements in filters or directly in the text of the ad, which allows platforms to track this data. Sometimes these prohibitions only become apparent during a conversation with a realtor or owner.

Prior to the outbreak of full-scale war, the percentage of restrictions on renting housing with children and animals was steadily increasing. However, now, according to DIM.RIA, this figure is declining.

“Such restrictions from homeowners are understandable. We explain this by fears and the lack of easy-to-understand risk management mechanisms. For example, it can be compensation for damaged property or pledging a certain amount of money into the principal amount of the lease. However, there are a large number of people who are ready to rent housing for tenants with tails, and currently it is 17.4%,” says Vitaliy Poberezkyi, Head of Product Development at DIM.RIA.

The top three most common restrictions on the platform also include the requirement for a long-term lease, which remained stable at 1% from 2020 to 2024.

Despite changes in rental demand, the restrictions remain unchanged. Among the most common requirements from property owners are “no pets,” “no children,” and “long-term lease only.” Interestingly, new restrictions have emerged, such as renting only to couples or girls, while some owners avoid male tenants. The share of ads with such requirements is small, with the largest number recorded in 2022 - 190 ads, Poberezky notes.

At the same time, the statistics from OLX are somewhat different. Since 2020, the share of long-term rental ads with the “no children” restriction has initially increased from 2.6% to 2.7% in 2021, but dropped to 2% in 2024. The percentage of ads with a “no pets” requirement initially decreased from 0.9% to 0.8% in 2021, but has now increased significantly to 25.8% in 2024.

In addition to restrictions on renting housing with children or animals, the Bird platform also records other requirements, says Aliona Bobko, communications manager at LUN:

“In general, we do not notice any direct restrictions. There have been cases when a military man was not allowed to live. But we block such realtors if we see precedents. We also know that people still ask: “Where are you from?” It doesn't really affect the decision-making process, but such questions are still present.”

Do the conditions really depend on the price?

According to the OLX platform, the median cost of long-term rental apartments where pets are allowed and those where they are not is not significantly different: UAH 10,500 and UAH 10,000, respectively. However, the cost of renting a house with and without pets is almost twice as high. 

While the median cost for tenants without pets is UAH 13,500, the median cost for owners of four-legged friends is as much as UAH 25,000.

Moreover, a higher price does not necessarily mean better conditions or location. As an exception, the best housing conditions were offered by property owners who have pets themselves. But such cases are rare.

In general, according to Vitaliy Poberezkyi of DIM.RIA, it is not easy to determine the difference in the cost of housing with and without restrictions. The company's data shows that property owners who allow pets rent apartments at a price 10-15% higher than the market price. There is a tendency to increase the cost, but the situation differs from city to city.

“In Vinnytsia, a one-room apartment with ‘no pets’ restrictions is 6% more expensive. While in the capital, such an apartment is 6% cheaper than an apartment without restrictions. As for the cost of housing with the “no children” restriction, it is difficult to say for sure. For example, in Kyiv and Vinnytsia, a one-bedroom apartment without restrictions costs 5% more than one with restrictions. However, in Dnipro and Khmelnytskyi, the difference is 11%, and an apartment “without children” costs more,” he explains. 

Ultimately, the supply and cost of rental housing is influenced by many external factors. These include the situation at the front, economic factors, and the state of Ukraine's energy resources.

“Often, restrictions such as ‘no pets’, ‘no children’, and others are financially supported by private agreements between the owner and the tenant. Of course, DIM.RIA specialists do not monitor this,” adds Poberezkyi.

There is also a practice when property owners and tenants with children or animals agree on a larger deposit, write a clause in the contract to compensate for possible damage, etc. 

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Which Ukrainian cities are the most child- and pet-friendly?

There are already positive developments in the pet-friendly environment: more and more platforms are introducing a “pet-friendly” filter and promoting a pet-friendly approach.

Changes on the Bird platform

In October 2023, LUN added a pet-friendly filter to the Bird app. Since then, the share of such ads has increased in three of the five cities where the app is available:

• Kyiv: from 17.1% to 20.9%.

• Odesa: from 12.2% to 19.1%

• Dnipro: from 9.15% to 15.7%.

At the same time, in Kharkiv and Lviv, the percentage of ads for renting apartments with pets decreased:

• Kharkiv: from 14.7% to 13.6%

• Lviv: from 15.1% to 10.5%.

Renting an apartment with children

In these cities, the following percentage of ads allow renting an apartment with children:

• Odesa: 19,3%

• Kyiv: 17.95% of the total

• Dnipro: 10,8%

• Kharkiv: 10,6%

• Lviv: 9.7%.

OLX platform analytics

According to the OLX platform, the most child- and pet-friendly cities in Ukraine:

• Lviv

• Ternopil

• Kharkiv

• Kherson

• Khmelnytskyi

The largest share of ads for long-term rental housing with the restriction “without children and animals” is observed in:

• Rivne

• Lutsk

• Zhytomyr

• Cherkasy

• Poltava

DIM.RIA platform

According to DIM.RIA, the largest number of ads with the “no pets” restriction is recorded in..:

• Dnipro: 16,4%

• Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy: 15% each

The lowest number of such ads (3-4%) is in:

• Kherson

• Kharkiv

• Lutsk

The largest number of ads with the requirement “without children” is observed in:

• Cherkasy: 5%

• Odesa and Dnipro: 3% each

Real estate owners are open to families with children (less than 1%) in:

• Ivano-Frankivsk

• Kharkiv

• Kherson

Long-term rental

According to Vitaliy Poberezkyy, the largest number of ads with the filter “only long-term lease” (3%) is observed in

• Cherkasy

• Lutsk

• Zhytomyr

The least number of such ads in:

• Chernihiv

• Sumy