Rent in Barcelona most expensive in Spain

Rent in Barcelona is the most expensive in Catalonia and Spain as a whole, according to the latest figures. The average price per square meter in the Catalan capital was 15.79 euros in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 1.3% from the last quarter of 2017, and 4.2% more than last March.

In addition to being the most expensive city in all of Spain, the top ten most expensive municipalities are also to be found in the province of Barcelona, according to the index carried out by Fotocasa, the largest real estate provider in the country. Out of the ten different districts in Barcelona, rent has increased in six of them.

An overall decrease

Meanwhile, in the first three months of 2018, the average rent in all of Catalonia was, on average, 12.26 euros per square metre, marking a decrease of 1.1% compared to the previous quarter.

In January of this year, rent in Catalonia reached an historical maximum of 12.88 euros per square metre. Between February and March, however, prices generally fell by up to 4.8% throughout the country. Despite this overall decrease, rent in six out of ten of Barcelona’s districts bucked the trend and continued to rise.

“Rental prices continue to get more expensive, but with less intensity as last year,” explained Beatriz Toribio, director of studies at Fotocasa.

Rising prices

A similar report carried out by Fotocasa demonstrated how rent prices in Catalonia increased by 10.3% throughout 2017.

In December, the average rental price in 28 out of the 37 Catalan municipalities in the study increased, in some areas more dramatically than others. In the municipality of Rubí, about half an hour in car away from Barcelona, for example, rent rose by an average of 19.7%. Meanwhile in the southern Catalan municipality of Reus, rent only increased by 0.5%.

The latest study shows how rental prices in 12 out of 40 Catalan municipalities have risen in the first quarter of 2018.