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RENTING

Where can I rent a studio for a good price in Spain in 2024?

Want to rent your own place in Spain but not sure if you can afford regular apartment prices? This breakdown of the monthly rental costs for studio apartments in Spain's 50 main cities will help you know where to get a good deal.

Published: 17 January 2024 09:28 CET
Updated: 20 January 2024 07:03 CET
Where can I rent a studio for a good price in Spain in 2024?
Find out where you can rent a studio in Spain without breaking the bank. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

In Spain, it’s seen as a luxury to be able to afford to live on your own in a studio, rather than in a flatshare. Many young people still live at home because they can’t afford to move out, while others have no choice but to share accommodation with others.

A report by NGO Ayuda en Acción in 2023, revealed that 64 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 34 in Spain continue to live with their parents.

Recent data from property portal Idealista shows that the average cost of a room in a shared flat was €380 for November 2023 compared to an average of €700 a month for a studio. This means that living alone in Spain is on average 84 percent more expensive than sharing. 

The price of renting a studio in Spain increased by 12 percent last year while renting a room rose by 9 percent. 

To be clear, a studio apartment is a flat consisting of a single large room serving as bedroom and living room and often kitchen, with a separate bathroom. They’re cosy but they can still serve as comfortable homes in central locations for people wanting independence.

READ ALSO: What will happen to rents in Spain in 2024?

Despite the difference in prices, the supply of studios in Spain has been reduced by 7 percent over the past year, while demand has increased by 39 percent. The supply of rooms, on the other hand, has grown by 38 percent.

If you want to live on your own in Spain rather than a shared property, it’s important to consider where to base yourself, so that you can make sure your budget will cover your rent. 

Thankfully, there are still many places in Spain where renting a studio is more affordable than others.

The most affordable cities in Spain to rent a studio

The cheapest city to rent a studio in is Ciudad Real at €350 per month, followed by Lleida in Catalonia (€390), then Palencia in Castilla y León and Teruel in Aragón (both €425). Coming in joint fifth place are Caceres in Extremadura and Oviedo in Asturias (€430).

The next five cheapest places to rent a studio are Cuenca and Murcia (€435), Jaén, Salamanca and Zamora (€450).

The most expensive places in Spain to rent a studio

Surprisingly, the most expensive city to rent a studio in Spain isn’t the capital of Madrid, it’s the Basque city of Vitoria i Gasteiz at €1,000 per month.

This was followed by Barcelona at €960, Valencia at €935, then Palma de Mallorca, Madrid, San Sebastián and Bilbao at €850.

The next four most expensive places were Málaga (€760), Alicante (€750), Pamplona (€720) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (€700). 

The difference in price between renting a studio vs renting a room

The biggest difference between rooms and studios was again in Vitoria i Gasteiz, where studios are 176 percent more expensive. They were followed by Zamora (165 percent more expensive), Badajoz (151 percent), Valencia (147 percent), Albacete (140 percent) and Segovia (131 percent).

The smallest differences were found in Lleida (studios are only 37 percent more expensive than rooms), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (51 percent) and Murcia (55 percent).

Here is a breakdown of average monthly rents for estudios (studios) compared to habitaciones (rooms) in Spain’ 50 provincial capitals.

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For members

BARCELONA

Can Barcelona really ban all Airbnbs?

Barcelona’s mayor recently announced plans to get rid of all tourist flats in the next four years as a means of controlling rent hikes. It’s the most drastic measure so far in Spanish cities’ battle against Airbnb - but will it actually happen?

Published: 4 July 2024 15:48 CEST
Can Barcelona really ban all Airbnbs?

In late June, Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni made national headlines when he announced plans to revoke the licence of more than 10,000 tourist apartments in the Catalan capital. 

It would “be like building 10,000 new homes,” Collboni argued, alluding to Spain’s need to build huge amounts of social housing to counteract the shortage and price rise of regular long-term rentals for locals. 

Tourism’s impact on Barcelona and the subsequent animosity from residents has been around for over a decade, whereas in other places where anti-mass tourism protests have been held, such as Málaga and Canary Islands, it’s a more recent phenomenon. 

READ ALSO: ‘It kills the city’ – Barcelona’s youth protest against mass tourism

So it’s perhaps no surprise that the Catalan city is the first place in the country to truly aim at cutting out tourist apartments altogether. 

Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez has lauded Collboni’s “bravery” in the fight against the proliferation of tourism lets (up by 60,000 new Airbnb-style beds in just a year in Spain). 

However, there are plenty of voices which oppose the move to make Barcelona holiday let free.

“It’s unconstitutional,” Marian Muro, president of Barcelona Association of Tourist Apartments, told business daily Expansión.

“What Barcelona City Council is doing is expropriating the rights of the holders of tourist licences,” she claimed. 

Apartur is planning legal action against the measure on three levels: through the Constitutional Court, the administrative court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

According to Muro, Collboni knows that the legislation he’s promised will be “revoked”, and criticises that “no analysis or study has been provided” to justify the move. 

Her association has also told the Spanish press that Barcelona stands to lose “up to 40 percent of its tourists” with said blanket ban.

Collboni’s right-hand man Jordi Valls, in charge of economy and tourism at the city council, has openly admitted that “it’s clear that there will be a legal battle”, adding that “sectors linked to tourist flats appeal to compromise but also threaten legal battles”.

“Amsterdam and New York are doing it, all cities impacted by tourism are trying to get residential harmony to exist again,” Valls told national radio RNE. 

The key for him is to strike a balance between housing being a “financial asset” and serving a “social function”.

“We can’t give up on controlling it,” Valls concluded.

Crucially, the Barcelona councillor has said that since the tourist apartment ban was announced on June 21st, the sale of flats with tourist rental licences has fallen, something also reported in Catalan daily El Periódico, which stated that such sought-after properties were selling for €100,000 above the standard appraisal. 

For economics professor at Barcelona University Gonzalo Bernardos, tourist flats don’t represent enough of Spain’s housing market for a ban to have a sufficient impact.

“Eighty percent of tourist flats in Catalonia are owned by people with just that flat”, Bernardos claimed on La Sexta, so the ban would not have a great impact on “large investment funds or people who want to speculate” with property prices.

READ ALSO: VUT, AT or VV? Why Spain’s holiday let categories matter to owners

Barcelona’s progressive revocation of tourist let licences until 2028 may be endorsed by local and national authorities currently, but it will be a struggle for them to win the many legal battles they are set to face in the coming years from groups with financial interests in the Airbnb market.

Last year, the European Parliament approved new data-sharing rules that clamp down on illegal short-term rentals, as a means of protecting residents of European cities who face shortages of affordable housing.

However, EU lawmakers have not yet considered a blanket ban on Airbnb. 

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights does state that “The use of property may be regulated by law in so far as is necessary for the general interest”, but completely eliminating the right of Spaniards and Europeans to let out their homes to tourists will be a monumental task. 

READ ALSO: Good tourists, bad tourist – How to travel responsibly in Spain

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