Renting a house in Spain is becoming increasingly costly. The trend continues to accelerate through the summer, reflecting a broader pattern of steadily rising rents that began in 2022 and has grown stronger in recent weeks. According to the latest price report from the Idealista real estate portal, the average rent in Spain reached 11.3 euro per square meter, up 5.6% year over year in July. This marks the steepest rise recorded this year and stands out as a notable post-pandemic spike. Rental prices hit record highs in more than half of the country this year. In 12 capitals, rents reached maximum levels in July, including Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, León, Lleida, Logroño, Vitoria, Santander, Zaragoza and Toledo, while the remaining 23 capitals also posted peak levels. Barcelona remains the most expensive city with an average of 17.4 euro per square meter per month, followed by Madrid at 15.9, San Sebastián at 15.5, Bilbao at 12.6 and Palma at 12.1 (Data source: Idealista price report) .
Month-to-month, prices climbed by 0.7% on average in Spain, while the year-over-year increase across the country stood at 3.8% compared with the previous quarter. Rents surged in double digits in cities such as Barcelona, Girona, Alicante, Huelva, Cuenca, Cáceres and Almería relative to 2021. These movements illustrate how urban centers continue to lead rent inflation as demand remains robust and new housing supply remains constrained (Source: Idealista price report) .
For example, A Coruña, Lugo, Burgos, Segovia, Huesca, Girona, Guadalajara, Cáceres, Córdoba, Jaén, Almería, Huelva and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria registered record average prices in June, while Teruel, Zamora, Cuenca, Salamanca, Pontevedra, Tarragona and Cádiz did so in May, following earlier peaks in Ávila and Castellón de la Plana. Rents in Soria also reached record levels earlier in the year, notably in February (Source: Idealista) .
Only 15 capitals remain below their previous crisis-era monthly peaks. Rent peaks in Oviedo and Ciudad Real still stand from 2010 (February and December, respectively, tied to the economic crisis that year), while others peaked between 2020 and 2021. The so-called “insertion effect” is often cited to explain how crises influence rent dynamics (Citation: Idealista data) .
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The residential rental market and the market for sale remain interconnected and influence each other. Today’s landscape shows very little new-home development and a limited supply of remodeled second-hand housing on the market. Even renovation activity in rental properties has pushed up material costs, contributing to higher overall rents (Source: Idealista analysis) .
Experts note that during the pandemic, average prices for May 2020 in major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Seville had not yet been reached. “In the worst moments of covid, when the market was nearly closed, prices surged. As restrictions eased, supply rose and rents declined,” they explain (Source: Idealista insights) .
Only four capitals are at least 5% off their own records. Rents are down 6.4% in Ourense and Teruel, while Ciudad Real sits 6.3% below its peak and Madrid about 5.1% off. The average price in 13 other capitals (Pontevedra, Salamanca, Palma de Mallorca, Cáceres, Granada, Huesca, Segovia, Ávila, Cuenca, Seville, Soria, Bilbao and Zamora) ranges from 2.1% to 4.8% below their maximums (Source: Idealista data) .
In 14 other provincial capitals, including Barcelona, Pamplona, Las Palmas, A Coruña and Córdoba, prices are already very close to peak levels, with gaps under 1%. Finally, in cities such as San Sebastián, Oviedo, Palencia, Burgos, Girona or Tarragona, the current rents lie between 1% and 1.5% below their record highs (Idealista report) .
Zamora stands out as the city with the lowest average rent, at 5.7 euro per square meter. It is followed by Ourense and Ciudad Real, each around 5.9 euro per square meter, the only capitals where prices have not exceeded those seen during the economic and financial crisis (Source: Idealista) .