In Spain, 40.9% of tenants are financially overexposed to rental costs, meaning that they spend more than 40% of their income on paying rent, according to Eurostat's 2021 data, included in the 2022 Housing and Land Observatory, prepared by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda (Mitma).
This figure increased by five percentage points between 2020 – when it stood at 35.9% – and 2021. Moreover, the 2021 percentage was the highest since 2017, when it was 42.1%.
The 2022 Housing and Land Observatory also showed that in 2021 households residing in rented accommodation made up 15.2% of the total, according to the National Statistics Institute's Living Conditions Survey. Although this percentage is lower than for owned property, at 75.8%, the data reflect a growth of 6.7 percentage points in households living in rented accommodation between 2005 and 2021.
According to the records of the autonomous communities' rental deposit accounts, reported in the 2022 Housing and Land Observatory, prepared by Mitma, the average rental price in Spain was €695 in 2021, with the per square metre price at €8.80 and an average property being 88 m2 in size.
Spain ranks fourth as the most financially overexposed to rent
Spaniards' financial overexposure to rental costs is the fourth highest in Europe. First is Greece, where 74.6% of tenants spend more than 40% of their income on rent. In the Netherlands, the figure is 48.3%, followed by 45.4% in Bulgaria.
In the EU average, 21.2% of citizens living in rented accommodation were financially overexposed in 2021. The European countries with the lowest financial overexposure to rental costs are Ireland, Latvia and Lithuania. In Ireland, only 10.6% of renters spent more than 40% of their income on rent in 2021. In Latvia, this percentage rose to 10.7%, while it was 12.4% in Lithuania.
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