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E. H. Housing Only nine per cent of properties available to rent in Malaga can be afforded by average-income householdsA reasonable monthly rent for a Malaga resident's salary would be 845 euros, while the market price for a two-bedroom flat is 1,245 euros, according to Idealista
Malaga
Monday, 6 April 2026, 19:47
In the city of Malaga, only nine per cent of the current supply of two-bedroom flats is considered to be a reasonable rent that can be afforded by someone on an average salary.
And what is considered reasonable? The Bank of Spain puts the maximum percentage of a family's income that should be devoted to paying for housing - the rent-to-income ratio - at 30%.
This proportion, applied to Malaga, is equivalent to 845 euros per month, and yet the average market price of a two-bedroom flat in the city is 1,245 euros. This disparity makes Malaga the Spanish provincial capital with the lowest availability of affordable rent, according to a study published by the real estate portal Idealista, which combines its own data and that of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The report concludes that in Spain, 68% of the current supply of two-bedroom flats for rent is priced above the "reasonable" threshold. This means that it is not affordable for an average-income household that does not want to spend more than 30% on rent: the household should pay a maximum of 805 euros per month, while the median price of a two-bedroom flat stood at 1,088 euros per month in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The scarcity of reasonable rent is particularly striking in three cities: Malaga, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca. In Malaga, only nine per cent of two-bedroom flats are economically suitable for a family with an average income in the city; in Palma and Valencia the figure stands at 11%.
In Malaga, the reasonable price for a rental is considered to be 845 euros per month, while the market price for a two-bedroom flat in the city is 1,245 euros. In Palma, the reasonable price rises to 1,046 euros, but the market price is 1,609 euros; while in Valencia the reasonable rent is 940 euros and the market price stands at 1,351 euros.
Next come Madrid and Alicante with 16% of flats priced below the reasonable limit, Barcelona (18%), Segovia (24%) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (28%). Ninth place goes to the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the average income would be enough to rent 32% of the properties, followed by Salamanca with 33%. With percentages below 50% are the cities of Bilbao (35%), Seville (36%), San Sebastian (39%), Cadiz (41%) and Vitoria (47%).
At the other end of the spectrum are the cities of Ciudad Real, where 97% of two-bedroom flats could be afforded by an average-income family in the city. They are followed by the cities of Melilla (91%), Palencia (90%), Zamora (90%) and Jaén (88%).
What is a reasonable rent?
The financial consensus states that a family should not spend more than 30 per cent of its income on paying for a home (rent in this case), but incomes are not homogeneous in all Spanish capitals, so the limit of this reasonable rent varies from one to another. Idealista has used the income data per household published by the INE for each provincial capital and with this figure has calculated the maximum rent that could be paid in each of them (what we call the reasonable rent).
According to the data, the city with the highest reasonable rent is San Sebastián, where a reasonable budget of 1,221 euros per month is reached. It is followed by Madrid (1,166 euros/month), Barcelona (1,100 euros/month), Melilla (1,086 euros/month), Ceuta (1,058 euros/month), Girona (1,049 euros/month), Palma (1,046 euros/month), Toledo (1,031 euros/month), Pamplona (1,030 euros/month), Bilbao (1,022 euros) and Vitoria (970 euros/month).
On the opposite side, where reasonable rents are lower, are Zamora (775 euros/month), Huelva (790 euros/month), Salamanca (792 euros/month) and Ourense (807 euros/month).
Market prices
According to INE data, Spanish households are made up of 2.4 people on average, so a two-bedroom flat would be the minimum unit in which a family should live. In this case, flats that meet this characteristic have a current market price of 1,794 euros per month in Barcelona, followed by 1,650 euros in Madrid, 1,609 euros in Palma, 1,351 euros in Valencia and 1,350 euros in San Sebastián. Also above 1,000 euros are Malaga (1,245 euros), Segovia (1,214 euros), Bilbao (1,190 euros), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1,154 euros), Ceuta (1,141 euros), Alicante (1,098 euros) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1,095 euros). At the bottom, on the other hand, we find Jaén, where a two-bedroom flat currently costs 599 euros per month.
In terms of the differences between the reasonable price and the market price, Barcelona stands out from the rest, as the market rent is 694 euros more expensive than the reasonable price. This is followed by the differences in Palma (563 euros more expensive), Madrid (484 euros), Valencia (411 euros), Malaga (400 euros), Segovia (326 euros), Alicante (287 euros) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (242 euros). In 39 capitals, the median price of a two-bedroom flat is below the reasonable rent. In Ciudad Real the market rent is 316 euros cheaper than the reasonable rent, followed by Melilla (293 euros cheaper), Jaén (279 euros cheaper), Palencia (232 euros lower) and Lleida (213 euros cheaper).
Rent-to-income ratio
The cities where the differences between the reasonable price and the market price are the highest are also the ones with the greatest rent burden for families.
In Barcelona families renting a two-bedroom flat have to spend 46% of their income on rent, a rate that is well above the 30% set by experts. The cities of Palma (43%), Malaga (41%), Valencia (40%), Madrid (40%), Segovia (38%), Alicante (38%), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (35%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (34%), Bilbao (33%), San Sebastian (31%) and Seville (31%) are also above this level. In contrast, the lowest rent-to-income ratio is found in Ciudad Real (18%), Jaén (19%), Palencia (20%), Cáceres and Melilla (21% in both cases).