Buy or rent? It is a vital dilemma that many people face once they make the decision to become independent. In the first case, according to data of the General Council of Notaries, the average price of an apartment is approx … €1,993 per square metre, making an initial investment of 30% impossible in many cases.
Once you have ruled out this option, it is time to try to get… rent. But the situation is not so rosy. In a large capital like Madrid, you can hardly find offers for less than 800 euros, and the ones that do exist are usually houses a few meters in size where the bathroom is almost next to the bed.
Rental price It reached its historic maximum during the summer of 2025 In all societies. There are few homes and there is a lot of demand, so the market is increasingly tense. Although prices appear to have slowed in recent months with a 0.7% quarterly decline and an average monthly increase of 0.1%, according to Idealista, the reality is that Annual data still shows significant increases between October 2024 and 2025.
On average, The rental price in Spain has increased by 10.9% in one yearWhich puts the average price per square meter at €14.5. Things get complicated in provincial capitals. As Idealista data shows, as many as 51 Spanish capitals have higher prices compared to one year ago.
The price rises in 51 regional capitals
They only fell in Huesca (-1.7%)While the most noticeable increase occurred in the city of Ceuta, at 21.9%. The cases of Zamora, Ciudad Real or Teruel are particularly striking, cities where there is usually less real estate tension. The prices increased by 18.1%, 15.1%, and 13.4%, respectively.
As the report indicates, The behavior of major markets was also bullishAlthough, with the exception of Madrid (11.5%), increases were in the single digits: Seville (9.7%), Valencia (7.6%), Alicante (7.4%), Palma (6%), Bilbao (5.6%), Barcelona (5.1%) and Malaga (3.8%).
Regarding prices per square meter, Ciudad Real, Lugo, Zamora and Cáceres are the cheapest with an average price of 7.8 euros per square meter. Barcelona is still the most expensive, with the price per square meter reaching 24.3 eurosFollowed by Madrid, which records an average price of 23 euros per square metre. They are followed by others such as Palma, San Sebastian, Valencia or Malaga.
Madrid, the most expensive province to live in; Zamora, where prices rose the most in one year
At the provincial level, the price is also rising. In this In this case, the largest increase is made by Zamora, approximately 20% An increase, compared to Cáceres, which is the only place where the percentage is lower (-0.5%).
Despite the renaissance witnessed by the Castilian-Leone city, Madrid remains the most expensive province to rent with an average price per square meter of €21.1. This is followed by Barcelona, where the price per square meter is also more than 20 euros on average, and the Balearic Islands, which border this point.
The rental price was more contained in the corresponding provinces, Soria (0.1%), Huesca (0.7%), Girona (1.2%), Alava (2.7%) and Navarra (3%), while in Barcelona and Madrid the increase between October 2024 and the same month of 2025 amounted to 5.9% and 12.7% respectively.
In the interactive map below, you can see data for your exact county, both in terms of price per square meter and annual change.
All these increases have an impact on the data of the autonomous regions. There are no caveats here: living in each of them is more expensive than it was a year ago.
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