Finding an Apartment in Spain
Before Arrival
Because your apartment will be your largest living expense in Spain, it is important that you start researching apartments from home. Ideally, your apartment shouldn’t cost any more than 25-35% of your budget, but in some places this may be difficult and you might have to go as high as 40%. There are definitely ways to increase your income with side hustles while living in Spain, but I don’t recommend including them in your core budget items, because they aren’t guaranteed income. I recommend checking out Numbeo to find out the average for apartments in your city.
Average Apartment Cost
Let’s look at mine, in Vitoria-Gasteiz:
You’ll see that the average rent per month for a one-bedroom in the city center is about 600 euros, or 85.7% of your auxiliar budget. This won’t work for anyone except for a couple. If you’re both auxiliares, and making 1400 euros total, it would be 42.9% of your budget. This is doable, but still high, and I would only consider it if your utilities are included.
A one-bedroom outside of the city center is 450 euros on average, or 64.3% of your income. This is also too high for a single person on an auxiliar budget. As a couple, you can get it down to 32.1% This is a good percentage, and is what my partner and I pay.
The average 3-bedroom apartment in the city center is 847.50 euros. Assuming rent is divided equally, it would be 282.50 euros per person, or 40.4% of the auxiliar budget. Again, I would only consider this if it includes utilities, but otherwise it’s a bit high. It’s also possible that the apartment wouldn’t be divided equally. Maybe one of the rooms is larger, and the person with the larger room would pay more. If that is the case, you could probably afford to live in the city center if you rented one of the smaller rooms.
Outside of the city center, the average cost of a 3-bedroom apartment is 700 euros. Divided equally, your share would be 233.33 euros, or 33.3% of the auxilar budget. You could probably get that even lower by accepting a smaller room.
All of these figures are using average costs, but as auxiliares, we make less than the average income. That doesn’t mean we can’t live well. Minimum wage in Spain is about 600 euros a month, for 40 hours a week. We make more than that in just 12 hours. Use the averages as a benchmark, but not as the final word. You will be able to find some decent apartments for below the average. Finding an apartment is a challenge, but it is not impossible.
Where to Look for an Apartment
One of the most common places to look for apartments in Spain is on Idealista. You’re going to want to use the search filters to help you find reasonable options. First of all, if it defaults to Spanish, and you don’t speak Spanish, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “English.”
You will then see the option to rent or share. If you have already found some roommates in advance, and you are looking for an empty apartment, select “rent” and “homes”. If you haven’t found roommates and are just looking for a room in a shared apartment, select “share” and “homes”. Let’s look at some examples of shared homes in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The first thing you will see is a map of the neighborhoods. Whenever I don’t know a city well, I always look at the center and the casco viejo (old part of town) first.
The casco viejo is typically close to the center, but a little cheaper, so we’ll start by selecting that neighborhood. Next, we need to use the search filters. I would set your “max price” at the average you found on Numbeo, but only go as high as the average if they include utilities. If you set your maximum price lower than the average, you may miss out on some of these offers.
You’re also going to want to select “furnished.” If you’re not moving to Spain long term, there’s no reason to spend extra money on furniture. A lower priced unfurnished apartment isn’t worth it when you add on the price of having to furnish it yourself.
Next, choose “with photos or videos”. It’s a waste of time to add apartments to your list if you can’t see anything in order to help you exclude it. Listings without photos is lazy. If the landlord can’t be bothered to include photos, they probably can’t be bothered to come by when you have a problem.
There are a number of other filters you can add if you’d like. I sort them by lowest price and go from there.
Click on the option you would like to see. We’re going to start with the cheapest one, pictured above. Before even opening it, you can see that choosing this apartment would mean you’re sharing it with four other people. If you don’t like the sound of that, you can rule it out immediately. Let’s take a look anyway:
You’ll see that there aren’t many pictures here. For me, this is a turnoff. We see a window with no context. Is that in the bedroom? A shared space? What it says to me is that the outside is nicer than the inside.
In the kitchen, you can’t see all of the appliances. Is there an oven? A stove top? What about counter space and storage?
Let’s expand the description:
This description shows that you’ll need to pay one month for security deposit up front. This is pretty standard. What worries me the most here is that you will have 4 other roommates that you don’t get to choose. Also, since the minimum stay is 6 months, even if you like your roommates, someone else could replace them down the line. The one benefit here is that the bed is full sized (135cm).
If you, like me, think that 5 people in one apartment is too many, you can also filter for maximum amount of roommates. If you don’t want to live with more than 2 other people, you might find something like this:
You’ll see that for only 10 euros more per month, you’ve shed 2 roommates. Sounds worth it to me! Let’s look inside:
These photos, in my opinion, make the landlord seem more trustworthy. They don’t appear to be using deceptive methods that would waste your time and money. I would include this as an option on my list.
If you feel like there aren’t enough options, you could go back and search for full apartments. Even if you don’t know anyone who you could live with, you may be able to find someone either in the Facebook group for auxiliares in your region, or by posting an ad for roommates on sites like MilAnuncios, which is very similar to Craig’s List.
This site is a little harder to filter, but easier to connect with potential roommates. Idealista ads are usually placed by the owner (or sometimes an agency, which will charge you a commission). Ads on MilAnuncios, on the other hand, are usually people who have already found an apartment they like, but need one or two more people to fill it. I like this because the roommates usually care a bit more about having good roommate chemistry, whereas landlords just want to avoid empty rooms.
A couple of other popular websites for finding an apartment in Spain are Foto Casa and Piso Compartido. I have never used either of them, personally, but I know people who have.
Traps To Watch Out For
Sometimes ads can be a misleading. For example, this room comes up when I filter for full apartments:
You’re searching for full apartments, so you think that’s what you’ll get. But this landlord only listed it that way so it would go to the top of the list when you filter for lowest cost.
That’s the price per room, even though it’s listed as the apartment price. The owner also didn’t list any interior pictures. You don’t want them as a landlord.
Here’s another trick to watch for. This apartment is a good price for its location at 500 euros.
But what’s the catch? I think you know where this is going. It’s another misleading advertisement. Let’s take a look:
It is not illegal to charge your tenant community expenses, but most listings have them already included in the price. This owner is trying to get their apartment to rank with lower-priced listings, which is dishonest, even if they add that disclaimer at the end. They’re counting on you not seeing it. They also–big surprise–don’t have any interior photos. You do not want this person as a landlord.
Final Thoughts
Finding an apartment in Spain can be both exciting and frustrating. Most people like to get an idea of what they’ll find before they arrive. You should get started from abroad, but absolutely do not sign a lease or put money down on an apartment that you have not seen in person. The listing could be a scam, using photos of real apartments, but the “contact” person is not really the owner. Or, even if it’s a legitimate listing, there may be problems you can’t see in a picture. We have just seen some of the steps you can take from home. Now let’s take a look at what to do when you arrive in Spain. Apartments in Spain: After Arrival.
What are some of your questions or tips for researching apartments from abroad?
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