Briefing
The Instituto Nacional de Estadística published the 2026 edition of the Indicadores Urbanos. The press release names, for 2025, Calvià as having Spain’s highest median purchase price for residential property: €981,485. At the other end is Puertollano with a median purchase price of €57,698. For rental costs in 2024, the statistics name Pozuelo de Alarcón as the most expensive, with a median monthly cost of €1,499; the lowest figure was recorded by Lalín at €330. The figures cited come from the series’ tables published today.
Indicadores Urbanos is Spain’s implementation of the European Urban Audit and provides comparable indicators at municipal level and, in larger cities, at district level. The 2026 edition extends the housing price indicators retrospectively to 2010 and updates the methodology for rental costs; the INE recalculated earlier figures to account for additional areas used alongside the home, such as garages or storage rooms (excluding commercial uses). Following the methodological adjustment, the results should be read as consolidated annual figures.
At district level, the highest rental costs are concentrated in large cities: Madrid ranks the most expensive districts for monthly rents, including Recoletos with a median rental cost of €2,037 in 2024. Districts in Madrid and Barcelona dominate the upper rankings overall, while many peripheral or less economically developed municipalities have considerably lower figures. Among the highest purchase prices, tourist-oriented coastal towns and wealthier commuter belts are disproportionately represented.
The publication provides an up-to-date, data-based foundation for analysis of the housing market, income and spatial inequality in Spain. Methodological notes and the complete tables are available in the INE’s accompanying documents; the rankings and figures reproduced here match the tables published today for 2024 and 2025.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).