The effort to pay for an apartment in 25 large Catalan cities exceeds what is reasonable

The city of Barcelona, ​​the epicentre of the housing crisis in Catalonia, leads the effort rate. A household has to spend 59% of its average income to pay for housing, with a unit price of 3,937 euros per square metre. It is followed by other municipalities in the crown, such as Hospitalet de Llobregat, where the effort rate is 45%, Sant Adrià del Besòs (44%), Badalona (41%), Santa Coloma de Gramenet (40%), Cornellà de Llobregat (39%) or Mataró (38%). Up to twenty.

The situation is influenced by the cost of flats and the average disposable income of the population. Therefore, the price of housing is influential, as is the income of its inhabitants. For example, the price per square metre is similar in Santa Coloma de Gramenet and in Terrassa, slightly above 2,000 euros, but the effort rate is nine points higher in the former.

On the other hand, ten of the metropolitan municipalities analysed have an effort level below 35%, such as Barberà del Vallès (31%), Granollers (34%), Manresa (28%), Rubí (32%) or Sant Just Desvern (30%). Again, it is not only the price of the properties that must be taken into account. Sant Quirze del Vallès, with a unit price per square metre in the high range of 2,562 euros, has one of the lowest effort rates, at just 25%.

In Catalonia as a whole, however, the balance between price and disposable income has remained stable. “The moderation of inflation and the regularisation of wages has allowed households to gradually restore their purchasing power in 2024 and has contributed to maintaining the rate of effort at reasonable levels,” says Cristina Arias, director of the Tinsa research service. “The theoretical rate of effort to purchase - she adds - increased by six-tenths in the last quarter, to stand at 35.5%, still in line with what is considered a reasonable level of accessibility (35%).

As for house prices, they rose by 4.5% in the province of Barcelona during the fourth quarter of 2024, while in the Catalan capital the increase was even greater, at 5.7%. Even so, none of the municipalities studied exceeds the maximum value reached during the 2007 bubble. The cities that are closest are Sant Cugat del Vallès, still 9.9% below the prices of almost twenty years ago despite being the most expensive area in Catalonia (3,176 euros per square metre), Barcelona (9.2% below) and Castelldefels (-12.3%).