Malaga is the Spanish province where highest percentage of household income is needed to pay rent, study shows

The average household would need to budget almost half of its income to rent a typical two-bedroom apartment, while for the rest of the country it is 30% - the maximum limit experts mark as sustainable for family finances

SUR

Malaga

Monday, 22 May 2023 | Updated 24/05/2023 19:50h.

The average family would need to spend almost half of their income for the rental of a two-bedroom flat in Malaga, making the province the most expensive in Spain to pay rent as a proportion of income.

According to an Idealista property portal study, based on data from the first quarter of the year, it found that most families renting a two-bedroom apartment spend 47% of their income on rent, while the national average stands at 30%, the maximum limit experts mark as sustainable for family finances.

After Malaga the second-most expensive province in Spain is the Balearic Islands (42%), then Barcelona (37%), Las Palmas (32%), Alicante (32%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (31%), Madrid (31%), and Valencia, Seville and Navarre (30% in all three cases).

Teruel (16%) is the province with the lowest rate, followed by Palencia, Lugo, Ciudad Real and León (18%).

The study looked at the average net household income spent on renting a typical two-bedroom dwelling. The rental values came directly from the Idealista database, which has prices recorded for each city and province, while data on household income came from the national statistics institute (INE).

The median price of two-bedroom flats published in each area analysed in the study was used as the reference price for the study. It took into account a current average household size of 2.4 persons per household in Spain.