Palma is the most expensive city to buy a property in Spain, requiring 46% of the average family income, according to a study carried out by the real estate portal Idealista. The study has ranked Palma as the provincial capital with the highest property prices in relation to the average income of its inhabitants during the fourth quarter of 2025, and it is the only city, along with San Sebastián, where the cost of renting is equal to that of buying a home.
The Balearic capital ranks second among the cities that require the greatest effort from households to rent a two-bedroom home, with 43% of income, only behind Barcelona, which exceeds it by three points. Idealista points out that the percentage of income recommended by economic experts for rent is 30% of income.
Below the recommended 30% threshold are the cities of Alicante (28%), Valencia (27%), Granada (26%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (25%), Cádiz (25%), La Coruña (25%), Pamplona, Pontevedra and Vitoria (24% in all three cases), while the lowest rates are found in Jaén, Lleida and Melilla (13% in all three capitals), Zamora, Palencia and Huesca (14%).
Likewise, the Balearics has been the most expensive province to buy a home in Spain, along with Malaga, accounting for 46% of income according to the study carried out by the portal, followed by Santa Cruz de Tenerife with 36%, Alicante with 31% and the Community of Madrid with 27%. The real estate portal also ranks the Balearics as the second most expensive region for residents to rent a home, at 46% of income, surpassed only by Malaga, which reaches 52%. The city of Barcelona ranks third in this category with 42%.
Rent payments consume 38% of families’ net income, above the 28% of income required to purchase a home through a mortgage, according to data for the fourth quarter of 2025 published by Idealista.
The level of income required to access housing exceeds the 30% threshold for rent established by experts as the maximum recommended, due to ‘the lack of supply and the consequent increase in prices’.
The study measured the effort rate as the annual share of average net household income spent on rent for a two-bedroom home and used rental values from the portal’s own data sources. The data on the average household income comes from the National Statistics Institute (INE).