The Catalan capital is the most expensive place in Spain to rent a home with the best address, whilst Elche, in the Valencian Region, offers the cheapest rents at the low end, according to an annual study of the Spanish rental market by the valuations company TecniTasa.
The average cost of renting a flat of 100m2 on Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia is €2,958/month (29.6 €/m2/month), up 2% in a year. Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona’s Eixample district is arguably the city’s best address and reference point for high-end real estate.
At the other end of the scale the cheapest rents in Spain are to be found in the town of Elche in the Valencian Community’s Alicante province, home to the Costa Blanca, where low-end rents cost 1.80 €/m2/month, or €180/month for a flat of 100m2.
The study also reveals that high-end flats of 100m2 in prime locations of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Pamplona and San Sebastian and Marbella costs more than 1,500 €/month to rent, whilst the cheapest districts of Alicante, Castellon (Costa del Azahar), Malaga (Costa del Sol) and Almeria all offer rents of less than 200 €/month. Both markets have declined in price in recent years, say TecniTasa.
The second most expensive rental address in Spain is Madrid’s Calle Serrano, which will set you back 2,784 €/month for a flat of 100m2, down 13% say TecniTasa. It costs 1,920 €/month to rent a flat of 100m2 with the best addresses in Marbella.
The biggest falls at the top end of the rental market have been in the region of 12-13% in places like Santander and Madrid, whilst high-end rents have actually increased by 13% in the Galician cities of Pontevedra and Vigo.
The price differential between high-end and low-end rents in Barcelona and Madrid is around €2,300/month for 100m2 flats, falling to just 142 €/month in the town of Telde, in Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
House prices have fallen faster than rents, explains José María Basañez, President of TecniTasa, meaning that rental yields have increased in Spain over the course of the crisis. However, TecniTasa now expect that to change, as house prices recover faster than rents, compressing yields.
