Housing now accounts for more than a third of Spanish households' spending. Between rent, mortgages, utilities and maintenance costs, Spanish residents spent an average of 11,665 euros on home upkeep in 2025, representing 33.2% of their total annual expenditure, according to the household budget survey.

This is the category that saw the largest increase compared to 2024: 636 euros more per household, a 5.8% rise, exceeding the overall average increase in spending.

Rising rents, increased property prices and the impact of mortgage payments have made housing the main source of stress for many households.

They spent an average of 35,101 euros in 2025, 3.1% more than in 2024, but housing-related costs nearly doubled. In other words, budgets are increasing but a growing portion is going towards maintaining the home.

In 2016, households spent an average of 8,737 euros annually on housing, water, electricity, gas and other home-related expenses. Nine years later, that amount had risen by 33.5%. This surpassed the accumulated inflation rate between January 2016 and December 2025, which was 30.5%. This indicates that housing-related expenses have grown more sharply than overall prices.

Therefore, the rise is not solely due to the general increase in the cost of living, but also to specific pressure on one of the most difficult expenses to cut.

The historical comparison has an important nuance. During the pandemic, housing accounted for more than 35% of household budgets, but that was distorted by the exceptional drop in spending on leisure, restaurants, travel and other services due to restrictions.

In 2021, it still approached 34%, when consumers had started to recover. If we remove the period of the pandemic, the share in 2025 is the highest in recent times.

The burden is not distributed equally. In the 20% of households with the lowest spending, housing accounts for 41.9% of the budget, well above the 35% threshold that the Bank of Spain considers advisable not to exceed.

In contrast, among the 20% of households with the highest spending, home-related expenses represent 28.9%. The difference shows the extent to which fixed costs disproportionately impact those with less financial flexibility.

This inequality is also evident when we include other essential expenses. After housing, food and non-alcoholic beverages account for 16% of the budget, followed by transportation at 11.5%. These three alone represent more than 60% of average household spending.

These are expenses that, to a large extent, cannot be avoided in daily life, reducing the capacity to save up and limiting consumption in other areas.

In households with lower spending, the pressure is even greater. Housing and food alone account for 61.5% of their budget. Basic expenses, including transportation, approach 68%.

This leaves less room for recreational activities, culture and sports, to which they allocate just 2.9% of their spending, compared to 6.4% for the highest-spending households. Their outlay on restaurants and accommodation is also lower: 6.4%, compared to 10.9% for households with greater purchasing power.

The increase in spending in 2025 was widespread, although uneven across categories. In addition to housing, personal care, social protection and other goods and services (5.2%), recreational activities, sports and culture (4.7%), and food and non-alcoholic beverages (4.4%) saw significant growth, reaching 5,626 euros per year per household.

Conversely, the largest decreases were in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.4%), restaurants and accommodation services (2.7%), furniture and household goods (2.1%) and information and communications (2%).

Household type also influences spending levels. Couples with children spent the most in 2025, with an average of 44,438 euros, while single-person over-65 households recorded the lowest spending, at 23,024 euros. However, the largest annual increase, at 7%, was among single people under 65.

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