15.3% of Barcelona residents are rentiers and earn an average of 1,180 euros per month.

BarcelonaNearly 143,000 people declared income from renting property in the city of Barcelona. They earned an average of €14,162 annually, or €1,180 per month, according to the latest available Personal Income Tax (IRPF) data from the Spanish Tax Agency for 2022.

The 142,979 people who declared rental income from real estate that year received a total of €2.025 billion. This figure represents 33% of all declared rental income in Catalonia and is also the second highest in Spain, behind Madrid, where in 2022 there were 304,325 people who declared rental income from real estate (more than double that of Barcelona) and received a total of €3.649 billion.

However, while each rentier or landlord in Barcelona received, on average, €14,162 per year (and €1,180 per month), in Madrid this figure was €11,992.12 per year, which in turn is equivalent to €999.34 per month. Therefore, taxpayers in Barcelona receive an average of more than €180 per month (which is €2,170 per year) than those in Madrid. Not only that: Barcelona residents are also the taxpayers who file rental income tax returns with the most money, compared to landlords in cities such as Palma (€1,179 per month), Las Palmas (€895.7 per month), Málaga (€830.8 per month), and Valencia (€813.7 per month).

These territorialized data indicate the taxpayer's municipality, but not the property's municipality. Therefore, a taxpayer in Barcelona could report rental income located outside their municipality, which could be from rental properties or even from second homes they occasionally rent out. The city of Barcelona, ​​​​according to a study by the Barcelona Metropolitan Housing Observatory (OHB), had 225,185 homes with current rental contracts in 2022, and of this rental stock, according to another OHB report, the owners of five or more homes – and, therefore, large holders of the total – and 7 owners of 44.7% of the homes.

The big city where one in five inhabitants is a rentier

Among the large Catalan cities, one presents striking figures: 21.6% of its taxpayers have declared income from rental housing. Specifically, there are 50,813 landlords who have earned more than €161 million. This means that, on average, each of them earns €14,694 annually, or €1,224.5 per month. This is Sant Cugat de Vallès.

Compared to the 10 largest cities in Catalonia, the Catalan capital has the third highest proportion of renters, at 15.3%, a level very similar to Girona (15.5%), but far behind Sant Cugat del Vallès. Municipalities such as Hospitalet, Terrassa, Sabadell, and Lleida range between 10% and 12.5%. The other major city that also stands out is Tarragona, with 13.8% of all taxpayers being landlords.

But beyond the major cities, there are several municipalities that also have a much higher proportion of landlords as a percentage of total taxpayers than the Catalan average, which stands at 14.4%. In fact, if we look at the Catalan municipalities with the highest proportion of non-resident, affiliated population, we find border municipalities, such as Portbou and La Jonquera, followed by tourist municipalities, such as Port de la Selva, Naut Aran, Pals, Cadaqués, Alp, Santa Susanna, Vall de Boí, and Begur, in that order. Except for the first two, where the proportion of rentiers is 13% and 14.8% of the total taxpayers, in all other municipalities, the number of residents who declare rental income is over 20%. The most notable case is Port de la Selva, with 26%; One in four taxpayers in the municipality receives income from rent.

The richest municipalities are the ones with the most rental income.

Another correlation with the proportion of rentiers is the average annual income per inhabitant of the municipalities. Matadepera, Sant Just Desvern, Sant Cugat del Vallès and Alella were the four municipalities with the highest average annual income per inhabitant in Catalonia in 2022 and were among the ten richest in Spain, according to data from theAtlas of Household Income Distributioncorresponding to two years ago, published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Specifically, Matadepera is the municipality in Catalonia with the second highest proportion of taxpayers who receive income from renting homes (28.4%), behind only Ullastrell (36.3%). Third place is occupied by Alella (27.5%), which in turn was the municipality with the fourth highest average annual income per inhabitant in 2022. Sant Just Desvern is further down the list, with 22% of its taxpayers earning income from rent, a figure that is also well above the Catalan average (14.4%).