Rents close August at €15.1/m² after a 5.8% rise: up in 47 capitals and down in only four

02/09/2026 – ⏱ 6 min · By Realty Investor Editorial Team

This article is for informational purposes only and does not, under any circumstances, constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

August tends to be a month of statistical truce in the Spanish residential market: activity slows, fewer contracts are signed and the indices tend to move little. The figure published by idealista for August 2026 partly breaks that script. The average rental price in Spain closed the month at €15.1 per square metre per month, 5.8% above the same period of the previous year. The figure confirms that the €15 threshold is no longer a peculiarity of the large capitals and has become the average benchmark for the country as a whole. And it does so with a surprising territorial distribution: the biggest rises are no longer concentrated in Madrid or Barcelona, but in medium-sized capitals that rarely make the headlines.

The August picture: €15.1 per square metre

The indicator combines three readings that are best read together. Year on year, rents are up 5.8%. Compared with the previous quarter, the increase is 0.8%. And compared with July, the price falls by 0.9%. That monthly decline is the nuance that has led much of the financial press to speak of a slowdown, although it should be put in context: August is seasonally the month with the least rental activity of the year, and a month-on-month fall of less than one point does not on its own alter the underlying direction. The year-on-year rise, moreover, is moderating compared with earlier 2026 readings, in which the index at times moved above 6%.

A methodological change worth bearing in mind

Any comparison with older series requires a warning. In July 2026, idealista updated the methodology of its rental price index to exclude seasonal lettings —non-permanent contracts linked to holidays, studies or temporary work— and to strengthen the detection of anomalous values. The historical series was recalculated so that year-on-year comparisons remain consistent. The practical effect is significant: by filtering out seasonal lettings, the index offers a more accurate picture of the conventional residential market, which is the one that affects tenants looking for a main residence. Anyone comparing this 5.8% with percentages published before July 2026 should make sure they are comparing the recalculated series, and not the previous one.

The biggest rises are not where one might expect

Of the 51 capitals analysed, 47 record year-on-year rises and only four fall: San Sebastián (-4.8%), Vitoria-Gasteiz (-2.6%), Girona (-1.6%) and Bilbao (-0.1%). What stands out is who leads the upward ranking. Huesca tops the list with 15%, followed by Huelva (14.6%), Soria (12.4%), Toledo (11.8%), Zaragoza (11.1%) and Oviedo (11%); Castellón, Guadalajara, Melilla and Palencia also exceed 10%. In the large markets, the movement is more contained: Alicante rises by 7.3%, Palma by 5.9%, Madrid by 5.1%, Seville by 4.4%, Valencia by 3.5%, Málaga by 2.8% and Barcelona by just 0.7%. It is a pattern that has been repeating itself in Spanish residential indicators over recent quarters: the large markets are stabilising at very high levels while price pressure shifts towards secondary locations, with smaller housing stocks that are therefore more sensitive to modest changes in demand.

Madrid, Barcelona and Palma: the podium of the most expensive capitals

In absolute terms, the order does not change. Madrid is again the most expensive capital at €23.3 per square metre per month, followed by Barcelona (20.2) and Palma (19.3). At the opposite end, Jaén and Cáceres close August at €8.3, less than half the figure for the Community of Madrid as a whole. By province, 48 of the 50 rise year on year: Toledo leads with 12.3%, ahead of Girona (11%), Zaragoza (10.5%) and Castellón (10.4%); only Guipúzcoa (-4.5%) and Álava (-3.4%) fall. Madrid is also the most expensive province, at €21.5 per square metre, followed by the Balearic Islands (20) and Málaga (18.7), while Jaén (7), Ciudad Real (7.6), Badajoz and Cáceres (7.8) mark the floor of the market.

By region: the Basque Country, the only exception

The regional map leaves just one region in negative territory. The Basque Country closes August with a fall of 1.6%, consistent with the declines in San Sebastián, Bilbao, Guipúzcoa and Álava. At the other end, Aragon leads the rises with 10.2%, followed by Asturias (9.4%), Castile-La Mancha (8.8%), La Rioja (7.5%) and Castile and León (7.2%). The Community of Madrid rises by 5.9% and Catalonia by 2.7%, the latter figure being especially relevant because Catalonia applies rent caps in a wide range of municipalities declared stressed residential market areas. In terms of levels, the Community of Madrid (€21.5/m²), the Balearic Islands (20) and Catalonia (15.9) are the most expensive regions; Extremadura (7.8) and Castile-La Mancha (8.8), the most affordable.

What going above €15 means for the tenant's pocket

Translated into euros per month, the figure stops being abstract. A 45-square-metre flat at the average price in the city of Madrid costs more than €1,000 a month; in Barcelona, the same property would be around €909. The scale of the effort explains why renting has become the main source of tension in the Spanish residential market: according to the affordability indicators published alongside the report, renting absorbs around 39% of the net income of an average household in Spain, compared with the 29% that buying would represent. That gap —renting today costs proportionally more than buying, in terms of disposable income— is one of the structural anomalies of the current cycle, and is explained by the combination of scarce rental supply, low contract turnover and demand that finds no alternative route into home ownership for lack of savings for the deposit.

Why this matters to the real-estate investor

Rent is the variable that connects the price of housing with its yield. When rents rise faster than sale prices, gross rental yields expand; when the opposite happens, they compress. The data available for 2026 suggest that sale prices are rising faster than rents across the country as a whole, which in aggregate terms puts downward pressure on gross yields, especially in the most expensive locations. Hence the shift of the rises towards medium-sized capitals —Huesca, Huelva, Soria, Toledo, Zaragoza, Oviedo— has a reading of its own: these are markets with lower entry prices where the spread between rent and purchase value has historically been more favourable, and which now concentrate the greatest demand pressure. For developers and lenders, the message runs in parallel: the scarcity of rental supply sustains demand for new residential product, which is the underlying asset of a large share of real-estate crowdfunding projects.

A factor of financial context should be added. Euribor climbed over the summer of 2026 to around 3%, making variable-rate mortgages and instalment reviews more expensive. A higher cost of financing delays purchase decisions and pushes more households towards renting, precisely in a market where supply is not growing at the pace of demand. That combination —more expensive credit and a tight rental stock— is what sustains the tension reflected in the August data.

Reading for the investor

These figures should be handled with the caution they require. They are asking prices published on a property portal, not rents actually agreed or an administrative register of contracts: they measure what is asked, which does not always coincide with what is signed. The methodological change of July 2026, although it improves the quality of the series, limits comparability with earlier publications. And August is a low-activity month, with a volume of listings below the annual average, which amplifies variability in small capitals: a 15% rise in Huesca operates on a very different sample base from that of Madrid. None of this invalidates the figure, but it does suggest reading it as a snapshot of the trend rather than as an exact measurement. Past results are no guide to future ones, and all real-estate investment carries risks of illiquidity, default and total or partial loss of capital.

In a context of rising rents and more expensive financing, some private capital has, in previous cycles, explored routes of exposure to real estate other than the individual acquisition of a property to let, including regulated crowdfunding formulas. This is an observed dynamic, not a recommendation. At European level, the activity of crowdfunding platforms is governed by Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 and, in Spain, by the implementing rules and supervision of the CNMV.

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