Buying a home with a mortgage involves a very different effort depending on the autonomous community. Balearic Islands and Madrid currently present the most demanding levels, both in terms of the average amount of loans and the proportion of salary needed to meet the monthly payments.
The latest data from the College of Registrars, corresponding to the first quarter of 2026, places the average mortgage debt per home in Spain at 172,430 euros. The Balearic Islands reach 286,238 euros and Madrid 271,127, while the Basque Country and Catalonia are also among the communities with the highest average amounts.
The latest Annual Survey of Salary Structure available from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), corresponding to 2024 and published in May 2026, places the national average gross annual salary at 29,540.26 euros. The territorial differences allow us to see why a mortgage of a similar amount can represent very different efforts depending on where the buyer lives.
Balearic Islands: an average mortgage equals about nine years of gross salary
The most extreme case appears in Illes Balears. The average mortgage debt recorded during the first quarter of 2026 reached 286,238 euros, the highest level among the autonomous communities.
The average gross annual salary available for the Balearic Islands is around 31,852 euros. If the average mortgage capital is simply divided by that salary, the result is approximately nine years of gross salary.
This calculation does not indicate how long it actually takes a person to pay off their loan. It does not include interest, down payment, taxes, daily expenses, or other household income. It serves only as a comparative reference between the size of the mortgage and the average salary level.
Madrid exceeds 271,000 euros in average mortgage
The Community of Madrid ranks second in terms of average mortgage amount, with 271,127 euros per home during the first quarter of 2026.
The average gross annual salary in Madrid reaches 34,410.01 euros. The comparison between both magnitudes yields an approximate equivalence of 7.9 years of average gross salary.
The high regional salary does not fully compensate for the amount of financing needed to access a home. The effort indicator from the College of Registrars places the monthly mortgage payment at 44% of the salary cost in Madrid.
Catalonia is around six years of equivalent gross salary
Catalonia is also among the communities with the highest mortgage debt. The average loan amount was 187,187 euros during the first quarter of the year.
The average gross annual salary in Catalonia was 31,730.05 euros in the latest Annual Salary Structure Survey. The mortgaged capital thus represents approximately 5.9 years of gross salary.
The data illustrates how even in territories with salaries above the national average, the rising cost of housing forces the assumption of high loans.
The salaries of the Basque Country cushion a high mortgage
The Basque Country has an average mortgage debt of 187,390 euros, slightly higher than that of Catalonia.
However, it also records the highest average gross salary in Spain, at 35,170.28 euros annually. The equivalence thus reduces to approximately 5.3 years of gross salary.
This case shows why it is not enough to only observe the loan amount. A high mortgage can represent a proportionally lower effort where average incomes are also higher.
The payment takes 56.8% of the salary in the Balearic Islands
The most useful indicator for approaching the effective mortgage effort is the percentage that the monthly mortgage payment represents of the salary cost.
| Community | Mortgage payment / salary cost |
|---|---|
| Balearic Islands | 56.8% |
| Community of Madrid | 44.0% |
| Canary Islands | 37.8% |
| Andalusia | 34.9% |
| National average | 34.0% |
The Balearic Islands clearly stands out, with an average monthly mortgage payment of 1,362.1 euros, equivalent to 56.8% of the salary cost. In Madrid, the average monthly payment reaches 1,277.4 euros and represents 44%.
At the opposite end are La Rioja, with 23.6%; Extremadura, with 24.7%; and Region of Murcia, with 25.6%. The difference between territories exceeds 30 percentage points.
Canary Islands demonstrate why it is not enough to look at the loan amount
The Canary Islands do not appear among the communities with the highest absolute mortgage amounts, but it does occupy the third position in salary effort, with 37.8%.
The INE places the average gross annual salary in the Canary Islands at 25,120.38 euros, among the lowest in the country. Therefore, financing lower than that of Madrid or the Balearic Islands can represent a high burden when incomes are also lower.
The comparison shows that mortgage effort depends on the relationship between debt and income and not solely on the price or size of the loan.
A national average mortgage is equivalent to almost six years of gross salary
For the set of Spain, the average mortgage debt of the first quarter of 2026 was 172,430 euros, while the latest available average gross annual salary amounts to 29,540.26 euros.
The division between both amounts yields an approximate equivalence of 5.8 years of average gross salary. It should not be interpreted as the actual time needed to repay the loan.
Mortgages are amortized over much longer periods and the final cost also depends on the interest rate, the term, the down payment made, and the specific conditions of each transaction.
The average amount of new mortgages continues to rise
The most recent data from the INE shows that the average capital requested continues to grow. In May 2026, the average amount of new mortgages on homes reached 174,866 euros, 9.7% more than a year earlier.
The June figure subsequently raised the reference to 178,365 euros, 6% more in year-on-year terms, while 45,907 mortgages on homes were constituted.
A higher principal financed can raise the monthly payment even when interest rates do not increase in the same proportion, so the growth of the mortgage amount constitutes a relevant variable to measure access to housing.
Why this cross does not exactly measure how much it costs to buy a house
The comparison has important limits. The amount of a mortgage does not equate to the price of the home, because the buyer usually contributes a down payment with their own resources and must also assume taxes and other expenses.
It cannot be assumed that someone who signs a mortgage earns exactly the average salary of their community. The two statistics describe different universes: one measures mortgage financing and the other labor remuneration.
There is also a temporal difference. The territorial mortgage data used corresponds to the first quarter of 2026, while the latest definitive Annual Salary Structure Survey refers to 2024. Therefore, the "years of salary" should be understood exclusively as a comparative scale measure.
Balearic Islands and Madrid concentrate the greatest mortgage effort
The combination of the indicators places Balearic Islands and Madrid as the most pressured territories among those analyzed. They are the communities with the highest average mortgage amounts and, at the same time, the two where the payment absorbs a higher proportion of the salary cost.
Canary Islands reflects a different problem: comparatively low salaries raise the effort even without reaching the funding levels of Madrid or Balearic Islands. Andalusia is also slightly above the national average in quota over salary cost.
Access to a mortgaged home depends, therefore, on several factors that act simultaneously: amount of debt, income, interest rates, and repayment term. The combination of these variables explains why the same financing can be manageable in one community and much more demanding in another.