A Beginner’s Guide to Renting an Apartment in Spain

Thinking about renting an apartment in Spain? Moving can be stressful at the best of times, but this is especially true for foreigners who are unfamiliar with the lingo and the peculiarities of Spanish apartments. You’ll likely have lots of questions: “What’s the difference between interior and exterior?”, “Where’s the heating?”, “What are gastos de comunidad?” and “What the heck is entresuelo?”. Find out this and much more in this Beginner’s guide to renting an apartment in Spain.

Spanish Buildings Have A Dizzying Array of Floors

Normally when you search for an apartment you would expect the options to be limited to “ground floor”, “first floor”, “second floor” etc. until you reach the top. What else could there be, right?

¡Ja, ja, ja!

I’ve honestly never encountered a more complicated floor system in my life. Let’s take a look at it:

• Sótano – A basement completely underground.
• Semisótano – A floor that is partly under street level
• Bajo – This is the ground floor on street level.
• Entresuelo – A floor which is more than a metre above street level and has a basement below it.
• Entreplanta – A floor which is between two other floors and whose ceiling is lower than it normally would be because it’s been built using some of the space from the floors above and below it. Phew!
• Principal /Primero – The first floor – historically considered the best floor because in old buildings it typically has the biggest apartments with the largest balconies and highest ceilings.
• Segundo, tercero, quarto, quinto, sexto, séptimo, octavo etc. – Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth etc. No mysteries there.
• Ático – Top floor.
• Sobreático – The floor on top of the top floor. I know, this sounds crazy. Basically it’s a floor on the very top of the building that has been built after the other floors.

Is your head in a spin? You’re not alone. Of course not every building has all this dizzying array of floors, and there’s a lot of confusion and disagreement about exactly what constitutes each level.

But why is your floor relevant?

In short: Price

Generally the price increases the higher up the building you go, with the most expensive being the ático or sobreático. While being on a lower floor means you’ll have fewer or no stairs to climb, higher floors are generally preferred because they’re considered to be safer, quieter, have better views and have more natural light. Which brings us to luz natural…

Apartments with Natural Light are like Gold Dust

While you would think an apartment bathed in natural sunlight would be relatively easy to come by in sunny Spain, it’s actually a lot harder than you’d think, at least in densely populated cities.

Many traditional apartments in Spain are composed of labyrinthine corridors leading to many small windowless rooms covered wall to wall with dark wooden furniture. Heavy shutters block out any remaining sun that dares to infiltrate. In fact, the buildings seem purposely designed to shut out sunlight. This does keep out the overwhelming summer heat, but in return creates a dark and depressing living space.

Tastes are changing and modern apartments are being built with more open-plan styles, but a lot of apartments on the Spanish housing market have this traditional sombre and dingy style.

So if natural light is your priority, pay attention to the following two words: Exterior and Interior. If you want to see the sunshine peak through into your apartment for at least some of the day, you need to look for a piso exterior. That means your flat will look onto the street, giving you natural light, and maybe even have a nice view.

If you go for a piso interior, your apartment will face away from the street and probably onto the inside of the apartment block. If you’re lucky that might be a large, quiet patio with natural light. But very often it means looking into a long ventilation shaft that doesn’t see the light of day. This is also the place where your neighbours can drop miscellaneous items like rubbish, washing, and cigarette butts. Delightful.

Like your apartment floor, your choice of interior or exterior will also have an impact on the price of your apartment. So you can definitely save some money by going for that interior apartment looking onto a ventilation shaft, but you may end up reassessing your life choices if you have to stay there during lockdown.

Many otherwise gloomy flats generally have a redeeming feature though: a balcony or a shared terrace. I reckon many Spaniards live outside of their home for most of the day, and spend any needed vitamin-D time in the sun of the shared rooftop terrace or on their all-seasons balcony.

Now you know more about how to choose your apartment floor, and what to look for if you want a sun-filled apartment, let’s talk about heating…

Don’t Expect Central Heating

In fact, do not expect any form of heating at all.

This would be fine if Spain was a tropical country which was hot all year. But Spain is cold for at least three months of the year, even in the South.

It’s not that the temperatures are necessarily cold per se – minimum winter temperatures average around 8°C in Barcelona, the problem is that houses are not built to deal with cold weather. Many apartments in Spain have no heating system in place, which isn’t helped by the usual tile flooring, single-glazed windows and poor insulation.

When homes do have heating, it usually consists of nothing more than some small radiators tagged on as an afterthought. They usually prove very ineffective at heating an entire apartment, so many resort to buying portable electric heaters, using hot water bottles, leaving the oven door open (I’m not joking!), or using a brasero (basically a table with warm blankets on top and a heater underneath). While I’ve never seen one in Barcelona, braseros are apparently used a lot in Spain. Discover some tips for keeping warm in Spain here.  The other alternative is an air-con system which doubles up as heating, but this is expensive.

This leads us to another aspect of searching for an apartment in Spain that can be trying for a foreigner.

The Costs

While the cost of living in Spain is one of the lowest in Western Europe, renting an apartment in Spain comes with many costs you may not have considered. Let’s have a look at the main ones:

Gastos de comunidad

These “community fees” cover costs like cleaning communal areas, repair work, lift maintenance and wages for the concierge (portero). Incidentally, while I used to think having a concierge was very posh, it’s commonplace in many Spanish apartment blocks. It also turns out it’s really handy to have someone on call to collect mail and packages, keep delinquents out, and give you the daily gossip about the rest of the neighbours. Not to mention it provides jobs in a country with 17% unemployment – the second highest in the EU!

IBI

Impuesto de bienes inmuebles is an obligatory yearly payment that property owners have to pay to the council. While this should tax property owners, they often try to pass it on to tenants. Make sure to read your contract carefully and be prepared to dispute it!

Seguro Hogar

Home insurance. While it’s the owner’s responsibility to insure the structural elements such as pipes and walls (seguro de continente), it’s up to the tenants to take out home insurance for the apartment’s contents. While taking out seguro hogar isn’t obligatory, it’s usually a good idea as it covers everything from breakages to theft.

Fianza

Deposit. In Spain you’ll often be asked to pay two months of deposit up front, and while it’s refundable at the end of your tenancy (with a bit of luck and finesse), the steep cost is a major barrier for people looking for an apartment. The legal minimum is actually a 1-month deposit, but many owners and agencies get away with charging double in cities like Barcelona and Madrid.

Honorarios de agencia

Agency fees. Ideally, you would rent directly from property owners to save costs, but such agreements are far and few between. Most apartments in Spain are rented out by agencies. For the privilege of having them show you around an apartment and put together a contract, you’ll usually be asked to cough up 10% of a whole year’s rent before you can move in. Unlike the deposit, this is money that will be spirited away, never to be seen again.

As you can see, it’s no wonder that so many young Spaniards still live at home when you consider all the upfront costs of moving out. Overall though, rents are still far below the UK metropolitan average, and highly variable between areas, so you can sometimes get good deals and generally spend a lower share of your wage on a flat.

So, Are You Ready to Rent An Apartment in Spain?

Searching for an apartment in any country can be stressful, but it’s doubly difficult when you’re a foreigner and don’t know how the system works. Add a foreign language into the mix and things get even harder. But while it can seem daunting, you will manage it, and it will all be worth it when you’ve found your new home in the sun.

Ultimately, getting a flat here is the same as anywhere else. Just ask as many questions as you need and accept all the help you can with double checking contracts and bills. Understand what is included in the monthly rent, what isn’t and you’ll be fine.

To finish off. here’s some useful vocab and links to help you with your flat hunt.

Useful Vocabulary to Find and Apartment in Spain:

• Amueblado = furnished
• Semiamueblado = Semi-furnished
• Admite mascotas = Pets allowed
• Armarios empotrados = Built-in wardrobes
• Cocina americana = Open kitchen
• Terraza comunitaria = Community terrace shared with the neighbours
• Suministros = Bills like electricity, gas and water

Websites to Search for an Apartment in Spain:

• Idealista: My personal go-to because it’s easy to use and has a good range of filters to narrow down your search
• Habitaclia: Similar to Idealista and has pretty much the same offer, but not as intuitive to use
• De Particulares: Helps you to find apartments and houses to rent directly from property owners without the need to go through a costly agency!

Good luck with your apartment search! And please get in touch if you have any other questions. I would be happy to help.

If you enjoyed this post, you might like these other posts from Across the Water:

• 5 Ways Moving to Spain Changes You
• A-Z of Spain Part 1 and A-Z of Spain Part 2
• Spanish Tea Culture and The Arrival of the Kettle
• Queueing in Spain: How to Do it Right