Idealista

Idealista is Spain's largest residential and commercial property platform, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Madrid. It operates in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, listing properties for sale and rent across all regions. Its quarterly and monthly rental price indices are the principal market benchmark cited by Spanish government bodies, academic researchers, and financial journalists tracking housing costs. The index covers asking rents rather than transacted rents, meaning it leads rather than lags actual market conditions. In the context of Lowdown's nomads-and-communities coverage, Idealista is cited as the primary source for Madrid's April 2026 rental data showing a 17.9% year-on-year rise to €21.30 per square metre per month, the sharpest annual increase among Spanish provincial capitals in the period following the rent-freeze prórroga defeat on 28 April 2026.

On 1 July 2026 Idealista's June index recorded a national rent record of €15.3 per square metre per month, up 4.2% year-on-year. Madrid decelerated sharply to +7.6% year-on-year, down from the 17.9% peak recorded in April, while Barcelona rents fell -3.9% year-on-year, the first outright decline among major Spanish provincial capitals in this cycle. The figures fed directly into the week's housing-decree debate.