8.6 years of gross salary needed to pay off housing in Catalonia, highest amount in a decade

An average of 8.6 years' worth of gross salary is needed to purchase a home in Catalonia according to a report based on 2022 figures by real estate platform Fotocasa and job listing site Infojobs.

This, 103 months, is the highest amount required in a decade, the findings indicate, as housing prices went up by 3.9% year-on-year in 2022 while salaries did not increase at the same rate.

In 2020, an average of 7.9 years' worth of gross salary was required, and 8.2 were needed in 2021.

Barcelona pricier than Catalan average

Homeowners in the Barcelona area now take 9.6 years to pay off a mortgage as the average cost of an 80 sqm home is €237,868 while the average gross annual salary was €24,876.

The Catalan capital and its surroundings bring up the Catalan average as only 7.9 years are needed in Girona, 5.5 years in Tarragona, and 4.1 in Lleida.

Across Spain, homeowners need an average of 6.7 years, a figure that is considerably greater in Madrid (10.4 years) and the Basque Country (9.2 years).

Filling the Sink podcast

Barcelona activists have been at the forefront of the fight for affordable housing in Catalonia and beyond. 

Listen to the Filling the Sink podcast episode from November 2022 to find out how the Catalan capital's Casa Orsola, an Eixample neighborhood building whose new owners have chosen not to renew tenants' rental contracts, has become a symbol of Barcelona's housing crisis.