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COST OF LIVING

REVEALED: The cheapest city in Spain to live in

We all know where the most expensive places to live in Spain are - yes we’re looking at you Madrid and Barcelona - but where are the cheapest? 

Published: 11 January 2023 11:11 CET
REVEALED: The cheapest city in Spain to live in
Palencia is the cheapest city in Spain. Photo: pilar Rodíguez / Pixabay

A new study by the price comparison website Kelisto.es has analysed prices in the categories of housing, public and private transport, taxes, leisure and shopping. 

The results revealed that the city of Palencia in Castilla y León is the cheapest Spanish city to live in.  

Palencia sits at the top of Castilla y León, almost equidistant between Burgos and Valladolid. It also lies within an easy distance of the capital León, taking approximately 40 minutes by train and 1hr 30min by car. 

You can also easily reach the capital of Madrid from Palencia in just 1hr 30min by train or 2hr 30min by car.

It turns out that living in Palencia is actually 30 percent cheaper than the national average. 

The average wage in Palencia is approximately €23,500 per year, meaning that people there can enjoy greater purchasing power than in other areas of the country. 

Palencia particularly stood out for its cheaper housing and public transport. According to the online housing agency Enalquiler, the average price of renting an apartment in Palencia is €524 per month. While property site Idealista states that buying a home in Palencia costs €1,085 per metre squared. 

A one-way bus ticket there costs just €0.70, which is 41.67 percent less than the average in Spain. It was also the cheapest for a ten-trip multi-ticket, which costs just €4,45.65 percent less than the national average. 

Palencia is a relatively small city with a population of around 77,000 according to the latest data available. 

The cost of living is 30 percent cheaper in Palencia. Photo: Alejandro Polanco / WikiCommons

Known for its historic monuments, Palencia lies at the start of the Romanesque-style route around northern Spain and is surrounded by many churches, monasteries and other religious buildings. It is also revered for its spectacular Roman ruins – the Roman Villa of La Olmeda. 

Just a two-hour drive to the spectacular Picos de Europa mountain range and national park, the city, and surrounding area is ideal for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts too. 

The enclave of Melilla and the Galician city of Lugo took joint second place in the Kelisto study, where the cost of living was found to be 17 percent below the national average.

This was followed by Logroño in La Rioja, Teruel in Aragón, Cáceres in Extremadura, Zamora, Ávila, Soria and León, all in Castilla y León. 

The Camino de Santiago passes through the province of Palencia. Photo: Burkard Meyendriesch / Unsplash

READ ALSO: How much does it really cost to live in Barcelona?

Unsurprisingly, at the other end of the scale, the most expensive cities to live in, in Spain were revealed to be Barcelona and San Sebastián and Madrid. 

Barcelona was found to be 35.51 percent more expensive than the national average, San Sebastián was 29.9 percent more expensive and Madrid was 25.22 percent.

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RENTING

Do I have to pay the estate agent a commission if I rent in Spain?

Who has to pay the real estate agent commission (usually equivalent to one month's rent) in Spain: the landlord or the new tenant? And are there exceptions to the rules or underhand tricks agents use to get tenants to cough up more money?

Published: 24 April 2024 10:16 CEST
Do I have to pay the estate agent a commission if I rent in Spain?

Up until 2023, the general rule in Spain was that both the landlord and the tenant would both have to pay estate agency fees when a rental contract was processed through them, although in some cases it was just the arrendatario (tenant) rather than the arrendador (landlord) who had to foot most of this commission.

Tenants often had the sense they weren’t getting much in return out of it, as it was common to find apartments hadn’t been cleaned, filled with broken furniture and other appliances that weren’t working.

On top of a commission to the agency equal to one month of rent, tenants had to pay one to two month’s deposit and a month’s rent, meaning they had to pay a total of three to four months’ worth of fees upfront, which would rack up to a lot of money. 

READ ALSO: The cities in Spain where people fight most over a place to rent 

Thankfully, Spain’s housing law, brought into force in May 2023, put an end to this and now it’s solely down to the landlord to pay the agency fee as they’re the ones who hired them.

The law, which modified part of the Urban Leasing Law of 1994, now states: “The expenses of real estate management and formalisation of the contract will be borne by the lessor,” that is, the owner of the property.

READ ALSO – Renting in Spain: Can my partner move in with me?

One of the main problems is that agencies have been doing this for so long that they stand to lose quite a bit of money and may continue to ask tenants to pay on the side. 

Alejandro Fuentes-Lojo, a lawyer specialised in real estate law explained to Spanish news site Newtral: “Many professionals will try to circumvent this prohibition, and in some cases they will try to make the tenant pay out of pocket, but we must warn that if they agree, they will be unprotected by the law”.

Be aware, even though tenants shouldn’t have to pay the full agency fees anymore, there are certain circumstances in which they may still have to pay something.

The Rental Negotiating Agency (ANA), states that there are a series of exceptional cases where real estate agencies can pass some of these expenses on to tenants, specifically when they are offered a series of additional services that directly benefit them.

These expenses could include house cleaning services at the end of the lease, repair services and legal advice during the duration of the contract, or other services where it can be proven that they have a direct benefit for the tenants. These expenses can only be collected after the contracts are signed.

READ ALSO – Q&A: When can you legally leave a rental property in Spain? 

The general director of ANA and a lawyer specialised in leasing, José Ramón Zurdo, states: “The new Housing Law does not regulate or limit the impact of expenses that accrue after the signing of the contracts, because the limit of expenses that can be passed on is closed after this time”.

According to the new housing law, expenses that can’t be passed on to the tenant include management expenses charged by real estate agencies for intermediating, searching for tenants and showing the homes. Tenants can also not be charged for expenses of formalising contracts or paying any lawyers or notaries involved.

There are also four exceptional cases where agencies can still charge fees to tenants, when they are not habitual residence leases and, therefore, are not regulated by the Urban Leases Law.

These include:

  • Tourist accommodation
  • Rental of commercial or office space
  • Seasonal rentals
  • Luxury housing leases – Properties whose surface area exceeds 300 m2 built, or whose rent exceeds the interprofessional minimum wage by 5.5 times.

READ ALSO: Spanish court rules buyer can purchase property directly from seller without paying agency fees

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