Market analysis — Madrid
Madrid is Spain's largest residential market, with a population that grew 4.4% between 2015 and 2022 to over 3.28 million residents according to INE's Padrón Continuo. Median sale price per square metre in Rendio's analysed listings stands at around €5,375/m², with a marked asymmetry between central districts —Recoletos, Castellana, Jerónimos, Goya— above €12,000/m², and southern and southeastern districts —Carabanchel, Usera, Puente de Vallecas— below €3,300/m². Madrid sits in the top tertile by rental pressure among the 16 cities Rendio covers.
The rental-tension metric scores Madrid at 77 out of 100 on tenant demand, reflecting its scarcity of supply per resident and persistent population growth. The tenant-budget score sits at 33 out of 100: SERPAVI's average rent estimate (~€869/month at 2024 prices) absorbs roughly 53% of the per-capita disposable income INE publishes for the province (€19,632/year). That combination —high demand alongside stretched purchasing power— has historically coincided with rent growth above headline CPI and with gross-yield compression in central districts driven by sale-price pressure.
The district-level breakdown reveals considerable dispersion: net yield across the 65 analysed districts ranges from 0.69% in Recoletos to 4.17% in 12 de Octubre-Orcasur. Districts with the best price-to-rent ratio include 12 de Octubre-Orcasur (Usera, 4.17%), Palomeras Bajas (Puente de Vallecas, 3.62%), Entrevías (Puente de Vallecas, 3.60%), Orcasitas (Usera, 3.42%) and Pradolongo (Usera, 3.37%). The central and Salamanca/Chamberí districts concentrate far more supply (Goya with 42 listings, Recoletos with 33, Castellana with 32) at yields below 1%. This asymmetry —peripheral districts with thinner supply but better gross yield, against central districts with abundant inventory and compressed yields— underpins the two typical logics for residential investment in Madrid: rent-for-cashflow in the periphery, or wealth-storage acquisition with appreciation expectations in the centre.
Before visiting any property, Rendio automatically filters out listings that don't fit the retail-investor universe: protected housing (VPO), tenant-occupied or irregularly occupied properties, listings marked «to reform» without a defensible refurbishment budget, and cases with unreliable surface or price data. Cross-checking against the Catastro reference adds an extra signal where available. The dashboard lets you filter the active Madrid listings by these criteria and by estimated net yield, one listing at a time.