Spanish Asking Rents Reached €15.1 per Square Metre in August, up 5.8% on the Year
Spain's average asking rent stood at €15.1 per square metre a month in August, 5.8% above a year earlier but 0.9% below July, according to idealista.
Spanish asking rents averaged €15.1 per square metre a month in August, 5.8% higher than a year earlier. The monthly reading was negative — down 0.9% on July — while the quarterly comparison stayed mildly positive at 0.8%. idealista published the index on 1 September. The annual rate is the one that matters for tenants; the monthly dip is the sort of movement August routinely produces.
Big cities, small spread
Among the major markets the range is unusually narrow. Alicante led at 7.3%, ahead of Palma at 5.9%, Madrid at 5.1%, Seville at 4.4%, Valencia at 3.5% and Málaga at 2.8%. Barcelona brought up the rear at 0.7% — essentially flat in nominal terms, and negative once inflation is applied. Four provincial capitals fell outright: San Sebastián by 4.8%, Vitoria-Gasteiz by 2.6%, Girona by 1.6% and Bilbao by 0.1%.
On price levels rather than growth, Madrid remains the most expensive city at €23.3 per square metre, followed by Barcelona at €20.2 and Palma at €19.3. At the other end, Jaén and Cáceres both sit at €8.3 — a Madrid square metre costs almost three times a Jaén one.
The regional map has one hole in it
Regionally, Aragón posted the steepest rise at 10.2%, with Asturias close behind at 9.4%. Euskadi was the only autonomous community to record a decline, at 1.6% — consistent with the negative readings in Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria, the three Basque capitals. Whatever is cooling Spanish rents is, for now, geographically confined to the north coast.
What it means for yield
Rents rising 5.8% while sale prices rise faster compresses yield, and that is what Glopra's Spanish series shows: a national gross rental yield of 5.45% on an average price of $2,331 per square metre, and 5.04% in Madrid, where the price base is $6,850. Spain also carries one of the heavier tax burdens on foreign landlords in Glopra's coverage — a standardised effective rate of 19% on non-resident rental income, which takes a 5.45% gross yield to roughly 4.4% net before costs and vacancy.
Two caveats belong on any reading of this index. It measures advertised rents on listings, not signed contracts, so it captures what landlords ask rather than what tenants agree; and city-level averages hide the concentration of demand in a handful of districts. The direction — broad annual increases with a soft August and a cooling north — is the durable finding here, not the second decimal place.
Sources: idealista/news (idealista rental price index, August 2026), 1 Sep 2026 https://www.idealista.com/news/inmobiliario/vivienda/2026/09/01/911881-el-precio-del-alquiler-sube-un-5-8-en-agosto-y-sigue-por-encima-de-los-15-euros-m2