Summer temperatures can be brutal!
Despite being one of the hottest summers, Spain’s housing stock shows that not everybody has the benefit of air-conditioning.
In fact, only 30.1% of homes currently for sale or rent in Spain are equipped with any form of cooling, according to a study by idealista. For the study, the property portal analysed 900,000 homes currently being offered for sale or rent across the country.
Hottest Areas
The capitals that experience the highest temperatures seem to have the most air-con.
In Sevilla, 69.5% of homes on the market have air-conditioning installed. Cordoba, which regularly sees temperatures above 40 degrees, sees 56.4% of homes with air-con. In Barcelona too, more than half of the properties have cooling (55.2%). Other areas where around half of properties have it include Palma de Mallorca (54.1%), Jaén (53.9%), Valencia (51.8%), Madrid (49.8%) and Badajoz (48.6%).
Then we have the northern cities, where despite the occasional heat wave average temperatures are far cooler. In Oviedo and Vitoria only 0.5% of homes for sale have air-conditioning installed. Also, below 1% are Burgos (0.7%), Santander (0.8%) and Lugo (0.8%).
In Malaga, 41.3% of properties for sale or rent have air-conditioning installed. In properties for sale the number is 41.2%, while in rental property ony 41.8% have air-con.
Autonomous Communities
The Balearic Islands has the highest occurrence of air-conditioning in houses for sale with 49.7%. In Madrid 44.1% of properties for sale or rent are equipped. Extremadura and Andalusia are also well equipped with 42.5% and 41.3% of homes for sale offering air-con, respectively.
It is interesting to note that there is a large difference between rental and sale properties. While 40% of rental properties on offer have air-conditioning installed, only 29.1% of those on sale have cooling. The most likely reason is that tourists see air-conditioning as essential as many are not used to the heat of a Spanish summer, while those looking to buy would not consider it a deal-breaker.
Thus, 80% of homes that are rented in Sevilla have air-conditioning, while only 66% of those for sale in the area have it. Similarly, in Cordoba, 73.3% of homes to rent have air-con, while only 53.9% of sale properties do. In Barcelona, the difference is smaller with air-con being found in 59.2% of rental properties and 52.2% of those for sale.
