A dormitory place is the cheapest housing in Lithuania, and it is allocated by a queue you can join before you arrive. The gap between a hall place at €70.00 a month and a private room in the same city is the largest line in a student budget, and it is settled by an administrative deadline in August rather than by how much money you have.
The rates below are each university's own published figures, and they are not comparable in the way you would expect. Two of the six price by room type per month, one prices per person per day, one publishes a range across nine halls, and one publishes an initial fee and leaves the rate to the dormitory office. That is why a table of "average dormitory costs" found elsewhere is usually wrong.
Table of Contents
Who Runs Student Housing
Nothing on this page is paid placement. Every university listed here is a public institution
allocating its own halls, none of them pays us anything and none of them could. Where we link to a
private operator, we have no commercial relationship with it either. Links route through our own
/go/ redirect so we can count clicks; they earn us nothing. Every rate on this page is
the university's or the operator's own published figure.
There are three kinds of student housing here and they behave completely differently.
| University hall | Private student housing | An ordinary rented flat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | €70–€280 | From €449 | Market rent, split between you |
| Bills | Included | Usually included | On top, and heating decides the winter |
| Deposit | €150–€600 | €500 | One month's rent as custom |
| Who decides | A queue and a deadline | Availability | The landlord |
| Furnished | Yes | Yes | Frequently, but check the inventory |
| Can you declare residence there | Yes | Yes | Only if the landlord agrees |
The universities dominate and are not competing with each other. Each institution runs its own halls for its own students, so the only rate that matters is your university's. A student of another university can sometimes take a spare bed — VDU allows it, at a euro a day more, and only from 10 October once its own students are housed — but that is leftovers rather than a market.
Private student housing exists in Vilnius and Kaunas at a different price bracket. Purpose-built co-living blocks with private kitchenettes, gyms and common rooms, roughly three to five times a shared hall room.
And the largest group of foreign students ends up in an ordinary flat, sharing with two or three others, because the halls run out. Vilnius University says so directly: capacity does not stretch to every student, and it does not arrange or book private accommodation for anyone.
What a Place Actually Costs
Here is every published hall rate, in the form the university itself publishes it. Read the right-hand column before you compare the numbers.
| University | Published rate | How it is quoted | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vilnius University | €70.00–€260 | Per person per month, by room type | Bills; internet €5.00 extra |
| VILNIUS TECH | €85–€280 | Per person per month, hall by hall | Bedding, cleaning twice a week, reception |
| KTU | €87–€300 | Per person per month, as a range | Every utility and internet access |
| LSMU | €50–€232 | Per person per month, hall by hall | Bedding €40 one-off |
| VDU | €3.50–€8.00 | Per person per DAY | Bills |
| Klaipėda University | Rate not published | Initial fee €150 or €200 | Linen €5.00–€45 extra |
VDU's daily pricing is the one that trips people up. Its halls run €3.50 to €8.00 per person per day, so a thirty-day month lands between €105 and €240 — the same band as everyone else, but only after the multiplication. A student of another university pays €1.00 a day more, about €30 a month.
KTU's range is the widest and most complete. It publishes €87 to €300 across its halls, and states that the fee covers electricity, hot and cold water, heating, the other utilities and internet access — where at Vilnius University internet is a separate €5.00 per person.
Klaipėda University publishes an initial fee rather than a monthly rate. Its English accommodation page states €200 at the Universiteto avenue hall and €150 at the Statybininkų avenue one, plus bed linen at €45 or €5.00 and laundry at €2.50 to €4.00 a wash. The room rate is settled with the dormitory office — ask for it in writing.
The deposit varies by a factor of four, and it is due before you arrive
Vilnius University asks at least €150, or one month's rent if higher. VILNIUS TECH asks €600, refunded on departure if nothing is damaged, before the registration is finalised. KTU's advance payment runs €120 for a triple to €330 for a single. Klaipėda University's initial fee is €150 or €200. That money must move from a foreign account before you have a Lithuanian one, which is why the bank account is a pre-departure task.
The Six Universities, One by One
Vilnius University
The lowest published rate in the country
Key highlights
Key features
- Full price list by room type
- Bills included in the room rate
- Exchange and degree routes separate
Room rates
- From
- €70.00/mo
- Internet
- €5.00/mo extra
- Deposit
- from €150
Summary
- Full price list by room type
- Bills included in the room rate
- Exchange and degree routes separate
- Internet a separate €5.00 monthly
- Capacity does not cover every student
VILNIUS TECH
The most detailed hall-by-hall price list
Key highlights
Key features
- Seven halls priced individually
- Bedding, cleaning and reception included
- Documented in English
- One deadline, not a rolling queue
Room rates
- From
- €85/mo
- Deposit
- €600
- Deadline
- 21 August
Summary
- Seven halls priced individually
- Bedding, cleaning and reception included
- Documented in English
- One deadline, not a rolling queue
- The largest deposit of the six
- Fees payable at a bank within 3 days
KTU
Everything, internet included, in one figure
Key highlights
Key features
- Electricity, water, heating, internet included
- Sixteen halls, basic to en-suite
- Reserve online after signing the contract
- Ancillary charges published
Room rates
- Range
- €87–€300/mo
- Utilities
- Included
- Internet
- Included
Summary
- Electricity, water, heating, internet included
- Sixteen halls, basic to en-suite
- Reserve online after signing the contract
- Ancillary charges published
- Publishes ranges, not per-hall rates
- Move-in window 28 August to 1 September
LSMU
Nine halls, the widest spread, three rounds
Key highlights
Key features
- Price range and address per hall
- Three application rounds, not one deadline
- Parking offered at €20 a month
Room rates
- Range
- €50–€232/mo
- Bedding
- €40 one-off
- Main deadline
- 7 August
Summary
- Price range and address per hall
- Three application rounds, not one deadline
- Parking offered at €20 a month
- A late submission waits a round
- Bedding is a separate one-off charge
VDU
Priced per person per day
Key highlights
Key features
- Pay only for nights you stay
- Eight halls priced separately
- Open to students of other universities
Room rates
- Range
- €3.50–€8.00/day
- Roughly
- €105–€240/mo
- Move-in fee
- €10
Summary
- Pay only for nights you stay
- Eight halls priced separately
- Open to students of other universities
- No monthly figure, so you calculate
- Non-VDU students only from 1 October
Klaipėda University
Publishes the fees, not the room rate
Key highlights
Key features
- One email to the dormitory office
- Ancillary charges priced per hall
What is published
- Initial fee
- €150 or €200
- Linen
- €5.00–€45
- Laundry
- €2.50–€4.00
Summary
- One email to the dormitory office
- Ancillary charges priced per hall
- The monthly room rate is unpublished
- Bed linen charged separately, and varies
Three details sit behind those cards and change the arithmetic. Vilnius University prices its Kaunas halls per day as well as per month, so a single term there does not oblige you to pay for a full year — it is the only one of the six to publish both forms. KTU reserves about 25% of its places for first-year and international students, publishes the ancillary charges most universities leave unsaid — room change, lost card, extra cleaning — and takes no weekend arrivals inside its 28 August to 1 September move-in window. And Klaipėda University is effectively the only hall provider in its city, with the whole application procedure set out in its English student guide.
One more publisher worth knowing about. Mykolas Romeris University is the only Lithuanian university that puts a full per-room-type price list for both Vilnius and Kaunas on one page: €120 per person for a Vilnius triple, €130 for a double with a shared bathroom, €300 for an en-suite single, and in Kaunas from €90 for a triple and €200 for a single, with a €100 reservation deposit credited against the first month. If you are comparing cities rather than universities, it is the cleanest like-for-like there is.
Applying, and the Deadlines
Every university runs its own timetable, and none of them waits for your visa.
| University | When you apply | The deadline | Then |
|---|---|---|---|
| VILNIUS TECH | Through the university information system | 21 August, 12:00 | Pay the €600 deposit to finalise |
| LSMU | Through the study information system | 7 August, 09:00 | Two more rounds: 13–18 and 21–24 August |
| VDU | Choose a free place in the university portal | Move in by 31 August | Other universities' students only from 1 October |
| KTU | Reserve online once the study contract is signed | As soon as you are enrolled | Move in 28 August to 1 September |
| VU | Enrolment route for exchange, admission route for degree | Set by the housing office each year | Places are finite and fill at the start of term |
| Klaipėda University | Email the dormitory office | Rolling, by application date | First-years and Erasmus confirmed by return |
The pattern underneath all six is the same: the place follows the study contract, not the visa. KTU says it outright — you reserve shortly after signing the study contract, using the login issued at the same time. VDU's first-year page requires reservation and move-in by 31 August; VILNIUS TECH closes at noon on 21 August for main-admission bachelor's entrants and asks for the deposit before registration is finalised.
A non-EU student whose residence permit is still being decided in late August is competing on a clock that has nothing to do with the Migration Department. Apply the day you have the study contract, and treat the deposit as the cost of holding the place — most universities refund it, and say so on the page.
What a Place Includes, and What It Does Not
In the rate
Common to essentially every hall here:
- Electricity, heating, hot and cold water
- A bed, a desk, a chair and a wardrobe
- A shared kitchen with a fridge and a cooker
- Internet access, except at Vilnius University
Not in the rate
Budget for these separately or be surprised:
- Meals — no Lithuanian hall is catered
- Bed linen at LSMU and at Klaipėda University
- The deposit, which is due before you arrive
- Room-change and replacement-key charges
The differences that actually change your monthly number are these. KTU includes internet in the fee and Vilnius University charges €5.00 a month for it — over an academic year that is about €50, which is real money against a €70.00 room. VILNIUS TECH provides bedding and changes it every 10 days and cleans the room 2 times a week; LSMU charges €40 once for linen and Klaipėda University up to €45. And nobody feeds you — every hall assumes you cook, which is why the kitchen matters more than the room when you are choosing.
The comparison that decides the year is hall against room, not hall against flat. A hall is priced per bed; no Lithuanian authority or property portal publishes an average for renting a room as distinct from a whole flat. So take a flat you could actually share, divide by the number of people and add heating — our cost of living page has the tariffs, and renting an apartment has why the winter bill is the variable that matters.
The Private Operators
Purpose-built student housing arrived late here and is still small, but there is a real option in each of the two university cities.
In Kaunas, Solo Society occupies a block on Kęstučio street with private kitchens and bathrooms, shared leisure space, a gym and a laundry. Vytautas Magnus University's own accommodation page for incoming students states the price as from €449 a month with utilities included — roughly four times a shared hall room, and roughly what a studio costs on the open market with none of the tenancy paperwork.
In Vilnius, SHED Co-living near Santaros clinics sells single and twin studios and premium rooms. It publishes a €500 deposit and a 5-month minimum lease during the academic year, and states what the monthly figure covers: water, heating, electricity, waste, wi-fi, gym access, cleaning of the common spaces and a handyman. Room rates are quoted through its booking system rather than on the price page.
Two university-adjacent options are worth knowing. Mykolas Romeris University lets rooms in both cities at published rates, and Student Residence Hall in the Kaunas old town rents renovated rooms with utilities and wi-fi included — when it has any, which at the time of writing it does not.
For everything else the universities point at the same places anybody else uses: Aruodas.lt and Skelbiu.lt for listings, Spotahome and Rentum for bookings from abroad. VDU names all four on its page for incoming students, and adds advice worth repeating — landlords here answer the telephone far more reliably than email.
A Student Budget
Start from the number the state makes you prove. A student residence permit requires evidence of €576.50 a month, exactly half the €1,153 minimum wage. It is a legal floor, not an estimate of what living here costs.
| Line | In a hall | Sharing a flat | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | €75.00 | Your share of the rent, plus heating | VU's own price list, room plus internet |
| Transport, Vilnius | €7.60 | €7.60 | The published student rate; €14.00 in Kaunas |
| Everything else, Vilnius | €780.40 | €780.40 | Numbeo, crowd-sourced and unaudited |
| Against the permit threshold | €576.50 | €576.50 | What you must prove, per month |
A hall triple plus internet plus a discounted Vilnius transport pass comes to €82.60, leaving roughly €493.90 of the permit threshold for food, phone, books and everything else. Numbeo's crowd-sourced estimate for that "everything else" in Vilnius is €780.40 on its own — more than the whole threshold. Kaunas comes out at €772.70 on the same basis and Klaipėda at €668.70.
Add the one-off costs that land in your first fortnight and are missing from every budget guide: the deposit, between €150 and €600 depending on the university; bedding where it is charged, €40 at LSMU; and a move-in fee where there is one, €10 at VDU. The full monthly picture across the three cities is on cost of living.
Exchange Student or Degree Student
The two are treated as different applicants by almost every housing office here, and the difference runs in the exchange student's favour more often than not.
| Exchange student | Degree student | |
|---|---|---|
| Application route | Usually the enrolment process | The admission process |
| Timing | Fixed to the semester, so predictable | Tied to when your study contract is signed |
| Priority | Often confirmed rather than queued | In the queue with everyone |
| Length of stay | One or two semesters | A full year, and VDU's daily pricing suits neither |
| Realistic fallback | Private student housing on a short lease | A shared flat on a normal tenancy |
Vilnius University runs two separate procedures — an online enrolment procedure for exchange students and an online admission procedure for degree students — and warns both that capacity does not stretch to everyone. Klaipėda University confirms first-year students and Erasmus participants by return email and puts everybody else on a waiting list ordered by application date. VDU keeps its own students first, opening free places to students of other universities only from 1 October.
The practical consequence is different for each. An exchange student arriving for one semester should take the hall place if it is offered, because the alternative is a five-month minimum lease at a private operator or a landlord willing to sign a short tenancy — and the second of those is rare. A degree student should treat the hall as a first year's advantage rather than a permanent arrangement: most move into a shared flat in year two, once they know the city, know some people to share with, and have a Lithuanian bank account and an asmens kodas that make a private tenancy straightforward.
Why You Can Trust This Guide
Each figure above was read from the university's own published price page, in the form that page publishes it. Where a university publishes a range rather than a rate, the range is what appears here; where Klaipėda University publishes an initial fee rather than a room rate, that is what the table says.
VDU prices per person per day, KTU publishes ranges across sixteen halls, VILNIUS TECH prices hall by hall. Averaging those into one number would produce a figure no student will ever be charged, so the page keeps them apart and does the arithmetic in the open.
The 21 August cut-off, LSMU's three August windows, VDU's 31 August move-in and KTU's 28 August to 1 September arrival window are each from the university that sets them.
No university pays us and none could; we have no relationship with any private operator either. There is no form on this page, and every card lists what its subject does badly — including Vilnius University, which is marked best on price and states plainly that it cannot house everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a university dormitory cost in Lithuania?
Between about €50 and €280 a month per person, depending on the university and the room. Vilnius University publishes €70.00 for a triple and €85.00 for a double; VILNIUS TECH runs from €85 for a standard triple to €280 for a renovated single; KTU publishes €87 to €300; LSMU €50 to €232. VDU prices per person per day, from €3.50 to €8.00, which is roughly €105 to €240 a month. Bills are in the rate at every one of them.
When do I have to apply for a dormitory place?
In August, and earlier than most people expect. VILNIUS TECH closes at 12:00 on 21 August for bachelor's entrants admitted through the main round. LSMU runs three windows: the main one closes at 09:00 on 7 August, then 13–18 August and 21–24 August. VDU wants its own first-years reserved and moved in by 31 August. KTU lets you reserve as soon as your study contract is signed, with move-in from 28 August to 1 September. The trigger is the study contract, not the residence permit.
What is the deposit on a dormitory place?
It varies more than the rent does. Vilnius University asks at least €150, or one month's rent if higher. VILNIUS TECH asks €600, refunded on departure if nothing is damaged, before the registration is finalised. KTU takes an advance payment scaled to the room type. Klaipėda University charges an initial fee of €150 or €200. All of it falls due before you have a Lithuanian bank account.
Is the internet included in the dormitory fee?
At KTU yes — electricity, hot and cold water, heating, the other utilities and internet access are all inside the monthly fee. At Vilnius University no: internet is €5.00 a month per person on top of the room, roughly €50 over an academic year against a €70.00 room. It is the commonest hidden difference between two headline numbers.
Can I get a dormitory place at a university I do not attend?
Sometimes, and always last. VDU opens its free places to students of other universities from 1 October, once its own students are housed, and charges them €1.00 a day more — about €30 a month. Halls exist for the institution's own students and leftovers come afterwards, so do not build a housing plan on it.
What does private student housing cost in Lithuania?
Roughly three to five times a shared hall room. In Kaunas, Vytautas Magnus University's accommodation page gives Solo Society as from €449 a month with utilities included. In Vilnius, SHED Co-living publishes a €500 deposit and a 5-month minimum lease in the academic year, with water, heating, electricity, waste, wi-fi, gym access and common-space cleaning inside the monthly figure; room rates are quoted through its booking system.
Is a dormitory cheaper than renting a room?
Almost certainly, and no published figure proves it either way. Halls are priced per bed; nobody in Lithuania publishes an average for renting a room as distinct from a whole flat. The published market figure is whole-flat asking rent per square metre — 16.4 €/m² in Vilnius and 12.8 €/m² in Kaunas — so divide a specific flat you could actually share, and add heating: in an unrenovated block the winter bill closes the gap.
What do I need to rent privately as a student?
A written contract, a deposit of about one month's rent, the first month in advance, and a landlord who will let you declare your residence there. There is no statutory cap on the deposit — one month is custom, not law. An agency fee of a month plus VAT is owed by whoever signed the brokerage agreement, so ask who instructed the agent before paying. Photograph the flat at move-in and send the pictures to the landlord: that is what gets the deposit back. Two Civil Code protections cannot be contracted away, whatever a tenancy says: a landlord on an open-ended lease must give six months' written notice, and nobody can be evicted from a home except by court order.
Why does my landlord not want me to declare my residence?
Usually because the rental income is not being declared. It is the landlord's problem until it becomes yours: a flat you cannot register at can hold up a student residence permit. Ask at the viewing rather than after signing, and treat anything short of a clear yes as a reason to see the next flat.
Where do students live in Vilnius?
Saulėtekis first — the campus district in the north-east where the Vilnius University and VILNIUS TECH halls are, twenty-five to forty-five minutes from the centre on public transport. Antakalnis sits next to it with better housing and a fair price-to-quality ratio, and Žirmūnai is about twenty minutes in. Naujamiestis is walkable to the old town and priced accordingly. The genuinely cheap rooms are further out in Lazdynai, Fabijoniškės and Pašilaičiai, where the trade is the commute.
Can I live on the amount the student permit asks me to prove?
€576.50 a month is exactly half the minimum wage and it is a legal floor rather than a budget. A hall triple plus its internet charge plus a discounted Vilnius transport pass already comes to €82.60, leaving about €493.90 for everything else — and Numbeo's crowd-sourced estimate for everything else in Vilnius is €780.40 on its own. It is possible in a hall with care. It assumes you get the hall.
Do exchange students get treated differently from degree students?
Yes, and usually better. Vilnius University runs a separate online enrolment procedure for exchange students alongside the admission procedure for degree students. Klaipėda University confirms first-years and Erasmus participants by return email and puts everyone else on a waiting list ordered by application date: an exchange placement has a fixed length and a known start, so the housing office can plan around it. If a hall place is offered for one semester, take it — the alternative is a five-month minimum lease at a private operator, or a landlord willing to sign a short tenancy, which is rare.
Apply for the hall the day you sign the study contract
Every deadline on this page runs off the study contract rather than the visa, and the cheapest housing in the country is allocated by a queue that closes in August. Everything else — the bank account, the permit, the flat — can be sorted after you have the place.
Disclaimer
General guidance, not legal advice. Universities revise their rates and their deadlines each year, and every figure above is the institution's or the operator's own as published on the date it was read. Confirm the current rate and the current closing date with the housing office before you rely on either. Nothing on this page is paid placement.