More than half of the rents in the Spanish capitals already exceeds 1,000 euros

Searching: apartment for rent in Barcelona. We leave more than 4,300 available homes. If we narrow down by maximum price and put 1,000 euros the offer is reduced quite a lot, to about 560. And if our budget is 750 euros it will cost us more to find where to live, there’s 67 rentals left.

In San Sebastian the average price is 1,200 euros: “the truth that below 1,000 euros a month is hard to find, below 750 it’s basically non-existent”. This city, next to Palma and Barcelona are at the top of the ranking. In fact, in these three municipalities, only 1 percent of all rents can be considered “affordable”.

A situation that forces many neighbors to leave the center of the city. “We have to go to the outskirts,” says a neighbor. The problem is aggravated if we talk about the young ones. So, they say, it is “impossible” to stop living with their parents. And those who decide to leave home have no choice but to share housing with strangers.

Things change if we go to smaller cities. To give an example: in Ciudad Real (Castilla-La Mancha) there are no rents that exceed 1,000 euros per month. In Palencia, the vast majority (99 percent) cost less than 750 euros. And in Ávila, this percentage is very similar (95 percent).

Although these exceptions help lower the average, the truth is that it is increasingly difficult to find an apartment to rent. ” A year ago, 42 percent of all homes advertised in the Spanish provincial capitals were priced at less than 750 euros. At the moment, the percentage has fallen to 27 percent,” says Francisco Iñareta, spokesman for the real estate portal Idealista.

In addition, in many capitals the percentage of supply below this affordable rent has been reduced. Where it has been most noticed is in Girona, which has gone from having 66 percent of affordable apartments to rent in the market to only 19 percent. A similar situation we also see in Valencia (from 54 percent to 9 percent), Tarragona (from 77 percent to 34 percent), Vitoria (from 47 percent to 5 percent) or Malaga (from 65 percent to 24 percent).