Renting a home accounts for an average of 39 per cent of the net income of an average household in Spain, according to a study carried out by the property portal Idealista based on data from the second quarter of the year.

According to this study, the proportion falls to 29 per cent of a family’s income when buying a property, although this indicator does not take into account the savings required in advance to secure financing.

The analysis attributes this situation to a shortage of supply, which it claims has driven up prices.
It adds that, in the case of renting, costs have exceeded the thresholds that experts ‘consider reasonable’.

By provincial capital, nine of them exceed the 30 per cent threshold that specialists set as the recommended limit for renting a two-bedroom flat. Palma tops the ranking, at 45 per cent of a family’s average income, followed by Málaga (40 per cent), Valencia (39 per cent), Madrid and Alicante (38 per cent), Barcelona and Segovia (34 per cent), and Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (31 per cent).

According to the study, Seville and Bilbao remain at the 30 per cent threshold; whilst at the opposite end of the scale are Ciudad Real and Teruel, both at 19 per cent of household income. When it comes to buying a home, five regional capitals have housing cost-to-income ratios exceeding the recommended 30 per cent: Palma (48 per cent), Madrid (39 per cent), San Sebastián (36 per cent), Málaga (35 per cent) and Barcelona (32 per cent).

The cities with the lowest housing affordability costs are Lleida (11 per cent) and Zamora (12 per cent), followed by Jaén and Huesca (13 per cent). Property rental costs in Palma average approximately €19.69 per square metre for apartments and €17.75 per square meter for houses, with baseline monthly rates starting around €800 to €1,200 for basic long-term units. Prices vary heavily by property type, size, and neighbourhood.

According to local real estate listings, average monthly long-term rental rates span across a wide bracket depending on the district. For example, in Son Vida, people can expect to pay around €7,000/month or in Palma’s Old Town around €3,250/month ranging from €1,300 for small 1-beds to premium penthouses.