Cost of renting a home in Spain continues to rise
The price on rental housing in Spain increased by 2.9% in October, when compared to September. When comparing the price to the previous year, we see an increase of 9.8%. This brings the average cost per square metre to €12.33 p/month. The annual increase of 9.8% is the highest detected in the last 20 months.
Spain has gone from a year-on-year variation of 7.1% in October 2023 to this new figure of 9.8%. In monetary terms, this amounts to an increase of €1.10 per square metre per month. Thus, an average rental of 80 square metres would have cost €898 per month in October 2023 but has now risen to €986 per month.
“The rental price reaches its maximum growth in the month of October. It is the highest variation of the year, since it is close to 10% increase at the national level. Six autonomous communities show double-digit increases and the rest very large increases, which indicates that the rental price is under great pressure. However, the acceleration in rental prices has been taking place continuously since 2022, causing the price to reach its highest records during 2024 in all communities, except for Aragón and Castilla La-Mancha, which will do so in the coming months. The reason for this warming is the great growing imbalance between supply and demand, in which both parties are further apart than ever,” says María Matos, Director of Studies and spokesperson for Fotocasa.
Autonomous Communities
If we analyse rental prices compared to those of a year ago, we see that 16 of the 17 communities saw a year-on-year price increase in October. The autonomous communities with increases greater than 10% are: Madrid (18.3%), Castilla-La Mancha (17.5%), Region of Murcia (13.2%), Asturias (12.4%), Navarra (12.2%) and Galicia (10.4%). They are followed by the regions of La Rioja (9.7%), Andalusia (9.1%), Aragon (8.9%), Castile and Leon (8.5%), Valencian Community (8.5%), Canary Islands (8.2%), Basque Country (7.4%), Extremadura (5.7%), Catalonia (4.1%) and the Balearic Islands (2.2%).
As for the ranking of Autonomous Communities with the most expensive rental prices in Spain, the four with monthly prices above €15.00 p/m² are: Madrid (€19.82 p/m²), the Balearic Islands (€17.35 p/m²), Catalonia (€16.33 p/m²) and the Basque Country (€16.20 p/m²). They are followed by the Canary Islands (€14.17 p/m²), the Valencian Community (€12.32 p/m²), Navarre (€12.04 p/m²), Cantabria (€11.26 p/m²), Andalusia (€10.50 p/m²), Asturias (€10.45 p/m²), Aragon (€9.82 p/m²), Galicia (€9.32 p/m²), the Region of Murcia (€9.09 p/m²), La Rioja (€9.06 p/m²), Castile and Leon (€8.96 p/m²) and Castile-La Mancha (€7.33 p/m²). Extremadura is the region with the cheapest price (€6.50 p/m²).
Provinces of Spain
In 47 of the 50 provinces, the year-on-year price of property to rent in Spain increased in October 2024, except for Cantabria, Teruel and Araba – Álava. Increases of more than 10% occurred in 16 provinces.
The order of the provinces with year-on-year increases of more than 10% are: Zamora (19.6%), Palencia (18.6%), Madrid (18.3%), Lugo (17.3%), Burgos (16.4%), Huesca (14.0%), Soria (13.9%), Murcia (13.2%), Asturias (12.4%), Navarra (12.2%), Ciudad Real (11.5%), A Coruña (11.4%), Cáceres (10.9%), Seville (10.9%), Alicante (10.6%) and Albacete (10.5%). The provinces which showed year-on-year decreases are: Cantabria (-1.1%), Teruel (-7.1%) and Araba – Álava (-11.8%).
The five most expensive provinces for monthly rental costs are Madrid (€19.82 p/m²), Barcelona (€19.03 p/m²), Gipuzkoa (€18.04 p/m²), the Balearic Islands (€17.35 p/m²) and Bizkaia (€15.81 p/m²). The three cheapest provinces to rent a home are: Jaén (€5.65 p/m²), Teruel (€6.05 p/m²) and Ciudad Real (€6.22 p/m²).
