Renting a flat in Spain for the first months after moving

Hello everyone! Today we'll talk about renting short-term housing in Spain for those who come to apply for a study visa or residence permit. In Spain, renting is a great alternative to buying real estate, as even Spaniards themselves, both young and adults, often prefer to buy.

A short-term rental is a great alternative to an annual one, and in this text we will tell you why and how to find it even before arriving in Spain.

There are pros and cons to everything. For example, cities such as Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Alicante are large and popular centers with developed infrastructure and busy lives, but the rental price naturally bites there.

For example, according to the Idealista website for February 2025, the average price for renting an apartment in Valencia is 15.2 euros per square meter, and in the satellite city of Torrent, which is located ~15 km (and 20 minutes by metro) from the center of Valencia, the price of housing is already 10.5 euros per square meter, that is, by 31% cheaper. And in the Barca suburb of Viladecans (~16 minutes by train), rent is 37% cheaper than in the Catalan capital.

Note that the actual rental prices are very different from the Idealista statistics. In the same Valencia, you will not find an apartment of 60 m2 for 900 euros (it will cost about a 1000 euros/month or more), but the percentage remains. Suburbs and small towns are much cheaper.

If you consider that transport in Spain is very developed (urban bicycle networks, subways, buses, trams, trains), movement can be organized without unnecessary transfers and wasting time.

You need an apartment or a room. However, at the time of applying for a student residence and other types of residence permit, neither a padron nor a lease agreement are needed immediately in Spain. That is, the length of your lease does not matter. However, you need an address for postal correspondence and, in general, a place where you will actually live, albeit temporarily.

We always recommend that all our students find short-term housing for 2 months before coming to Spain, and then, on the spot, look for a long-term lease agreement and get a padron.

Since Spaniard usually only speak Spanish and, moreover, like to communicate a lot, and most importantly in person, it is quite difficult to find an annual rental online if you don't know the language. You may be fluent in English, but Spaniards mostly are not. All the communication will be reduced to WhatsApp correspondence via Google Translate. And then it will come to naught.

When renting for a short term, as a rule, all online services are automated and do not require live interaction with owners or realtors (more on this below).

In Spain, the problem of Okupas is widespread, so Spaniards try to protect themselves from this in every possible way, having received maximum guarantees of reliability and solvency of the tenant, and when renting an apartment for a long time they can request anything! Of course, this is usually a Spanish work contract, and if it's not there, then someone is good at what.

Payment is for six months or a year in advance and plus several deposits. There are no rules, and it's useless to argue with landlords. Demand exceeds supply, so visitors usually have no leverage over the owner.

Let's even assume that you are already familiar with the city where you are going to live, but being a tourist and living as an expat are two different things. Even take the fact that every city has its own unfavorable areas (and inside these areas there are good and bad streets), or vice versa. It's better to come, look around and understand where you would like to live for the next six months or a year.