Where Is Housing Most Affordable in Spain? Rent, Salaries and Regional Differences in 2026

Spain’s housing market has a sharp regional divide: in September 2026, advertised rents averaged €15.1 per square metre nationally, but ranged from €9.5 in Murcia and €10.6 in Navarra to €21.6 in the Madrid region and €20.2 in the Balearic Islands. The gap becomes even wider at city level, with asking rents of €8.3 per square metre in Jaén compared with €23.4 in Madrid.

Salary differences partly offset those rent gaps, but not enough to erase them. Spain’s latest Wage Structure Survey puts average annual pay at €29,540 in 2024, with the highest regional averages in the Basque Country (€35,170), Madrid (€34,410) and Navarra (€32,605), while Extremadura (€24,979), the Canary Islands (€25,120) and Castilla-La Mancha (€26,062) were at the lower end. That means the cheapest rent is not automatically the most affordable housing once local earning power and employment opportunities are considered.

The affordability picture: look beyond the rent per square metre

The simplest way to compare Spanish housing markets is to look at advertised rent per square metre. It is useful, but incomplete.

A €9-per-square-metre apartment and a €20-per-square-metre apartment do not necessarily produce the same household budget. The cheaper market may have lower salaries, fewer high-paying jobs or a smaller supply of suitable properties. Conversely, an expensive city can offer considerably higher wages and a deeper labour market.

There is another complication: asking rents are not the same thing as the rent paid by every existing tenant. Idealista’s figures track advertised residential properties, so they are particularly relevant to someone entering the market or moving within Spain rather than necessarily describing every established tenancy.

As of September 2026, the national advertised-rent average was €15.1 per square metre, up 5.6% from a year earlier. The national figure itself had eased slightly from the July 2026 record of €15.3.

That combination—some recent cooling but still substantial year-on-year growth—is important. Spain’s housing affordability problem is not simply a question of whether rents are rising this month. It is the relationship between housing costs, incomes, available homes and the location of employment.

Which Spanish regions have the lowest rents?

At regional level, the largest differences are between the interior and parts of southern Spain on one side and the country’s most internationally demanded metropolitan, island and coastal markets on the other.

Murcia currently has one of Spain’s lowest regional asking rents at €9.5 per square metre. Castilla-La Mancha is also relatively inexpensive at €9.6 per square metre, while Navarra stands at €10.6 and Asturias at €10.9. Aragón is at €11.2.

At the other end, Madrid is at €21.6 per square metre, the Balearic Islands at €20.2 and the Canary Islands at €15.0. Catalonia is at €16.0, while the Basque Country is at €15.2.

These regional averages conceal substantial variation within each autonomous community. A region can contain both relatively affordable inland towns and extremely expensive tourist or metropolitan markets.

*Illustrative gross asking-rent calculation: 60 m² × advertised €/m². It is not a household affordability ratio, and it excludes utilities, taxes, deposits and other housing costs. Salary figures are gross average annual earnings per worker, not take-home pay. Regional salary data: INE 2024 Wage Structure Survey; rent data: Idealista, September 2026.

Murcia: low rents, but affordability still depends on income

Murcia is one of the clearest examples of why rent alone cannot answer the affordability question.

The region’s September 2026 asking rent was €9.5 per square metre, while the city of Murcia was at €9.9. A 60-square-metre property at the city average would therefore imply an advertised rent of roughly €594 a month before other housing costs.

The trade-off is income. Average annual earnings in the Murcia region were €26,177 in 2024, below Spain’s €29,540 national average.

There is also meaningful variation within the region. Cartagena was at €9.4 per square metre, while Molina de Segura was €8.0 and Águilas €8.3 in September.

For a household whose income is generated locally, therefore, Murcia can offer a very different housing equation from Madrid. For a remote worker earning a salary tied to another market, the calculation may look different again.

Jaén and inland Andalusia show how different one region can be

Andalusia is often discussed as though it were one housing market. It is not.

The regional asking rent was €14.1 per square metre in September 2026, but Jaén city was only €8.3. Málaga, by comparison, was much more expensive, while the wider Málaga province was €17.5 per square metre.

Jaén’s figure had barely changed from a year earlier, rising 0.3%, while some other Spanish markets experienced much stronger annual increases.

This is one reason that a search for affordable housing should normally move beyond autonomous-community averages. Inland provincial capitals can have dramatically different economics from famous coastal destinations only a few hours away.

The limitation is employment. A low-rent city becomes less useful to a household if taking advantage of the cheaper housing requires sacrificing employment income or accepting a long commute.

Castilla-La Mancha: affordability improves outside the largest metropolitan markets

Castilla-La Mancha has among Spain’s lowest regional rents, at €9.6 per square metre in September 2026. Its average annual salary was €26,062 in 2024.

Albacete illustrates the pattern. Its advertised rent was €9.2 per square metre in September, equivalent to about €552 a month for a hypothetical 60-square-metre property.

Smaller markets can be cheaper still. Albacete province averaged €8.4 per square metre, while Almansa was €6.2 in the same dataset.

For someone working remotely or with a stable local income, these differences can be material. For a commuter travelling regularly to Madrid, however, transport costs and travel time can narrow the practical advantage.

Navarra and Aragón: the salary side of the equation matters

Some of the more interesting affordability cases are not simply the regions with the lowest rents.

Navarra’s average annual salary was €32,605 in 2024, substantially above the national average. Its regional asking rent was €10.6 per square metre in September 2026. Pamplona was higher, at €11.7.

Aragón provides a similar example. Average annual earnings reached €31,731 in 2024, while regional asking rents were €11.2 per square metre. Zaragoza itself was €12.3, although its annual rent growth was 10.3%.

These markets demonstrate why an affordability comparison based solely on the cheapest advertised rent can be misleading. A household’s disposable income after housing costs depends on both sides of the equation.

Madrid and Barcelona: high salaries do not eliminate housing pressure

Madrid has Spain’s highest regional asking rent among the communities listed by Idealista: €21.6 per square metre in September 2026. Madrid city was considerably higher at €23.4.

At the same time, Madrid’s average annual salary of €34,410 was the country’s second-highest in the 2024 INE survey.

The result is a classic metropolitan affordability problem: relatively strong wages coexist with exceptionally high housing costs.

Barcelona presents a different recent trajectory. Its September 2026 asking rent was €20.1 per square metre, down 0.8% year on year according to Idealista, but that still puts the city well above most Spanish provincial capitals.

Barcelona’s wider region also demonstrates why city and regional figures should not be mixed. The Catalonia regional average was €16.0 per square metre, compared with €20.1 in Barcelona city.

The cheaper alternative may be outside the city

One of the clearest developments in Spain’s 2026 rental market is the movement of demand into cheaper municipalities surrounding major urban centres.

Idealista’s second-quarter 2026 analysis found that in 27 of the 50 provinces examined, a municipality other than the provincial capital showed greater relative demand pressure on available rental homes. Many of those municipalities had lower asking rents than the capital.

Examples include Getafe near Madrid, where advertised rent was €15.2 per square metre compared with €23.3 in Madrid in the period studied, and Cornellà de Llobregat near Barcelona, at €15.6 compared with €20.2 in Barcelona.

Similar differences appeared elsewhere: Alcoy was at €8.4 per square metre compared with €13.9 in Alicante, while Aldaia was €10.8 compared with €16.3 in Valencia.

But lower rent does not automatically mean easier access. Idealista also found strong rental demand in several of these cheaper municipalities. The apparent savings can therefore come with more competition for the limited properties available.

Why the cheapest advertised rent is not necessarily the cheapest place to live

Housing affordability should ideally be measured against net household income, not simply average gross salary.

A useful personal calculation is:

Housing burden = monthly housing costs ÷ monthly take-home household income

For renters, housing costs can include:

• Rent
• Electricity and gas
• Water
• Internet
• Community charges where applicable
• Insurance
• Parking
• Regular commuting costs caused by the chosen location

A household earning €2,000 net per month and paying €600 rent has a very different budget from one earning €3,500 and paying €1,000. The second household pays more in absolute terms but less as a share of income.

Spain’s national housing statistics also show why averages need careful interpretation. Eurostat reported that 7.8% of people in Spain lived in households facing housing-cost overburden in 2024, defined within the EU’s statistical framework as spending more than 40% of disposable income on housing costs.

That measure covers the broader housing-cost burden rather than advertised rents alone, so it should not be substituted directly for a rent-to-salary calculation. It does, however, provide a useful reminder that affordability is fundamentally a household-income question.

Rent inflation is changing the map

The affordability landscape is not static.

National advertised rents increased 5.6% year on year to September 2026. Some lower-cost markets have also been recording substantial increases: Aragón was up 9.6%, Asturias 9.3%, Castilla-La Mancha 9.2%, and La Rioja 10.5%. Murcia’s increase was smaller at 4.8%.

This matters because a city can be affordable relative to Madrid or Barcelona today while becoming substantially less affordable over several years.

The pressure is particularly visible in markets that were previously overlooked. Zaragoza’s advertised rents were up 10.3% year on year in September 2026, while Oviedo was up 10.4% and Salamanca 8.0%.

For anyone planning a move several years ahead, today’s rent is therefore only the starting point. Employment prospects, expected income growth and the trajectory of local rents deserve equal attention.

The broader national problem is also being driven by supply. Reporting in September 2026 cited Bank of Spain warnings that Spain could face a housing shortfall of more than one million homes by 2028, while rents and property prices have continued to rise faster than many household budgets.

For a deeper look at the national rental squeeze and its effect on household budgets, see Spain’s Housing Crisis Deepens as Rents Outpace Household Budgets and Tenants Take to the Streets.

What about buying rather than renting?

The same regional divide appears in the purchase market, although buying affordability introduces additional variables: mortgage rates, deposits, transaction taxes, maintenance and the relationship between property prices and household income.

The latest national second-hand housing data available in October 2026 showed continued price growth. Idealista’s third-quarter index put the national second-hand asking price at €2,930 per square metre, an 11.8% year-on-year increase, while Fotocasa’s index put it at €3,136, up 13.8%. The two figures differ because the providers use different methodologies.

This makes direct comparisons especially important. A location that looks inexpensive to rent may not offer the same relative advantage when purchasing, and vice versa.

What renters should check before choosing a Spanish city

The most useful comparison is not simply “rent per square metre.” Before committing to a city or region, prospective renters should check:

Actual housing cost. Calculate the likely rent for the size and type of home you need rather than relying on the regional average.

Local income. Use the salary level relevant to your occupation, not the national average.

Employment access. A cheaper town may make sense for remote work but less so if commuting to an expensive metropolitan centre several days a week.

Availability. A low advertised average is of limited practical value if suitable properties are scarce.

Seasonality. Tourist markets and island destinations can have a very different balance between permanent and seasonal housing.

Existing versus new tenancy costs. Asking rents describe properties entering the market and can differ from rents paid by households with older contracts.

Transport. Saving €300 a month in rent can be less attractive if commuting costs consume a large part of the difference.

Taxes and household costs. Gross salary comparisons should never be treated as equivalent to disposable income.

Spain’s rental supply is particularly important here. Idealista reported that long-term rental supply fell 0.2% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, while seasonal rental supply increased 13% and represented 29% of available rental homes in its dataset.

Where the affordability calculation becomes most useful

There is no single Spanish city that is affordable for every household because the answer changes with income, employment, household size and the type of property required.

The current data does identify several distinct patterns. Murcia, parts of Castilla-La Mancha, inland Andalusia and some smaller provincial markets combine relatively low advertised rents with lower local salaries. Navarra and Aragón combine moderate rents with comparatively high regional earnings. Madrid and Barcelona offer deeper metropolitan labour markets and higher average salaries but also much higher rents.

The strongest practical comparison is therefore not between Spain’s cheapest and most expensive cities. It is between the rent you would actually pay and the income you can realistically earn in the same place.

That distinction is becoming more important as housing demand spreads beyond Spain’s traditional major centres. Cheaper towns can provide substantial rent savings, but the advantage depends on whether housing remains available, whether employment or remote work is sustainable there, and whether rising demand pushes local rents closer to those of the cities people are leaving. In 2026, Spain’s housing map is increasingly a question of matching income, rent and location rather than simply finding the lowest price per square metre.