Living on rent in Madrid or Barcelona is practically impossible on one salary. In both cities, the average worker spends about $100 74% of your monthly salary Just to pay for the house. In other words, from every four euros comes … At home, three are lost at the beginning of the month. These numbers place the two major Spanish capitals at the level of real estate pressure of cities such as London or Moscow.
This data comes from the Global Prices Mapping 2025 report, prepared this summer by the Institute Deutsche Bank Researchwhich analyzes the cost of living in 69 large cities around the world based on the average net salary and the rental price of a one-bedroom apartment in the urban center. Moving to the European level, the results place Madrid and Barcelona right after the cities where the salary is not even enough to cover the rent.
In Istanbul, for example, the average cost of housing is practically equivalent to the entire salary, while in Lisbon Rent is 116% of salaries. After these two exceptions, Moscow, London, Madrid, Barcelona and Milan occupy the next step, where housing absorbs more than 70% of their salaries, a threshold that forces the majority of families to rely on more than one salary and, in many cases, to share one apartment.
Low wages and high rent
The Spanish case is particularly worrying because this pressure occurs with salaries that are clearly lower than in the cities with which they are compared. In London, the average net salary exceeds €3,600 per month, while in Madrid and Barcelona it barely exceeds €2,100. The result is that the average worker in London You have more money left over Available at the end of the month, although life is more expensive.
One step further are cities where rent is still high, but not quite so stifling. Rome allocates about 65% of salary to housing and Dublin 62%. Paris, often associated with high costs of living, has a more moderate rate of 45%. Berlin, for its part, remains at 40%, partly due to high salaries that mitigate the impact of rent.
Cities with high salaries
In contrast to this are the financial capitals of the center and north of the continent, which are not as touristy as those mentioned and also have very good salaries. Geneva It is the European city where rent is the least important to salary, with 29% of salary allocated to housing. Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna and Helsinki also maintain ratios below 40%, not because rent is particularly cheap, but because income compensates for it.
Of course, when we extend our view to the rest of the world, the positions appear more extreme than those in Madrid, Barcelona, or even Lisbon. In Cairo, for example, rent is equivalent to 125% of the average salary. In Bogotá and Mexico City it also exceeds 100%. In New York, the effort rate is about 81%, in a city where the average monthly rent is about 3,800 euros. The city of Bangalore in India represents the opposite case, as the percentage reached 24%, which is the lowest in the study.