Choosing a Rental Neighbourhood in Barcelona by Price

More and more companies and professionals are considering the Catalan Capital of Barcelona is Spain as a new location for their business ventures. London-based Real estate group Cushman and Wakefield recently conducted a survey in which Barcelona was the fourth best city in Europe to open a new business and their City Monitor Survey also found Barcelona to be voted number one in quality of life – Good news of you’re one of the lucky ones relocating to the city.

There are many factors to consider when thinking about relocating you and your family or partner to a new city. Obviously you will want a standard of living equal or better to that which you are leaving, but with city life also comes a hefty price tag for that dream home. Despite not being the capital of Spain itself, Barcelona is comparable to Madrid on many financial fronts, and could be considered as equal on many counts. The average price of a rental in Barcelona as of the second Trimester of 2009 is 1034 Euros. This is purely the rent – we’re not taking into account utility bills, any communal charges that an apartment building block might have, etc.

Anyone moving to Barcelona should also know that the city is fairly compact, so it’s not usually such a huge decision to make as to where you will want to live compared to huge metropolis such as London. With the excellent public transport systems in Barcelona , any commuter will likely only have to travel a maximum of 30 minutes if their office or workplace is within the city. This may lead you to believe you could therefore choose any neighbourhood based on whether you like living near the mountains – such as Tibidabo or Montjüic which flank the city, or maybe the Olympic Village and Barceloneta beach neighbourhoods. Well, you may be interested to learn the prices will also have a heavy influence.

The high part of town in the upper-class neighbourhood of Sarria leads the way in pricing of rentals, with an average price of 1259 Euros. Rents here are much, much higher in reality, as this average takes into account smaller living spaces to obtain a mean average. Expect to pay around 3000 Euros per month for an unfurnished rental up in Sarria. The nearby neighbourhood of Les Corts – home to the FC Barcelona stadium – is the next most expensive neighbourhood, averaging 1270 Euros. Barcelona’s biggest neighbourhood, Eixample, follows with an average price of 1170 Euros.

Those people expecting a much lower rental price are in for a surprise, too, with the smaller outer neighbourhoods not sitting any lower than 850 Euros. Horta, Sants-Montjüic and Horta have average prices between 935 and 855 Euros. It’s a really tough call to find a good apartment at the best of times, but with these prices, it pays to have a really good search around. This is where it can often pay dividends to employ the services of a qualified real estate agency. Who better to be able to swipe away the overpriced properties and those which are not even worth going to visit? You may find yourself searching aimlessly and end up viewing properties on shop fronts, or low floored apartments with little natural light which often attract the most attention due to their low price.