The average rent in Spain has increased exponentially in recent years and not only in the big cities. In general, the rent that a tenant must pay every month has increased by about 60% between 2015 and 2022, according to data compiled by the Brainsre platform.
This rapid increase, not correlated with the salaries of the Spanish, has triggered the percentage of income that is used to pay the rent. In the Balearic Islands, a region highly influenced by tourism, the average net income per household is 29,368 euros, according to the INE, while the average rent is 23,400 euros per year. The same occurs in Catalonia, where, despite market intervention, the average income is 34,982 euros and the average annual rent is 16,644 euros. In the capital the phenomenon is repeated, with an average rent of 16,476 euros and income of 37,687 euros.
The rent threshold with respect to income that experts consider to be “healthy” is located at 30%-35%, that is, allocate that percentage of household income to pay for housing, either rented or owned. This percentage is exceeded in eight regions in addition to Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands: Andalusia, (51.23%); Canary Islands, (38.69%); Cantabria, (36.89%); Valencian Community, (43.26%), and the Basque Country, (35.2%). Asturias remains outside the range considered inadvisable by experts, but it is close. With an average net income of 28,369 euros, Asturian households have to make an effort that now reaches 27.03% of their salaries to pay rent, with an average annual cost of 7,668 euros.
In addition to the Principality, the other areas where the least percentage of salary goes to rent, below 30%, are Ceuta, Melilla, Aragón, Castilla y León, Castilla La-Mancha, Extremadura, Navarra and La Rioja. According to the report “The Housing Property Telescope”, by the consulting firm EY, the investment funds and large homeowners in Spain are the ones that rent their homes the cheapest, between 7% and 20% below the market price of their areas of influence.