Cost of Living Spain vs Portugal 2026: Rent and Spending Compared

On official statistics, Portugal is cheaper than Spain, but the two countries’ sources measure different things, so the size of the gap is only roughly known. Portugal’s national statistics office (INE) puts the median rent on new contracts at €9.50 per m² a month nationally and €17.22 in Lisbon. Spain’s idealista asking rent is €15.1 nationally and €23.4 in Madrid. Everyday spending per person, excluding housing, is about €627 a month in Portugal and €834 in Spain.

Read the comparability section below before you quote any of these as a ratio.

Rent: two different measures

€/m² a month	Portugal (INE, contracts)	Spain (idealista, asking)
National	€9.50	€15.1
Capital	Lisboa €17.22	Madrid €23.4
Second city	Porto €14.29	Barcelona €20.1
Other cities	n/a	Málaga €16.5, Valencia €16.3, Alicante €13.9

The Portuguese figures are the INE median rent of new lease contracts signed in the 12 months to March 2026 (149,690 contracts nationally). They come from tax-authority data, so they are rents actually contracted. For the first quarter of 2026 alone, INE gives €9.46 nationally and €17.42 for Lisbon. It reports Lisbon as the most expensive of the municipalities above 100,000 inhabitants, and the Porto metropolitan area at €10.36 over the 12 months.

The Spanish figures are idealista’s September 2026 asking rents, the price of homes listed to rent. Our Spain cost of living guide explains the source. Asking rents and signed contract rents are different measures, so the two columns are not a like-for-like comparison. No Spanish figure on the INE Portugal basis was available, and idealista’s Portuguese report could not be opened, so there is no like-for-like rent comparison here.

Everyday spending per person

Both countries’ statistics offices run a household budget survey. Spain comes from the site’s city dataset (INE Spain, Household Budget Survey 2025, average spending per person, housing removed, utilities added back). The Portuguese side rebuilds the same buckets from INE Portugal’s Household Expenditure Survey 2022/2023, the latest edition (it runs every five years).

INE Portugal reports an average household spending €23,900 a year and €11,078 per person, which implies 2.16 people per household (23,900 divided by 11,078). Each household figure is converted to a per-person figure with that ratio.

Per person, a year	Portugal 2022/23	Spain 2025
Food	€1,433	€2,255
Transport	€1,339	€1,611
Utilities (water, power, gas)	€795	€622
Leisure and eating out	€1,317	€2,025
Other	€2,637	€3,501
Total, housing excluded	€7,521	€10,014
Per month	€627	€834

How the Portuguese column is built: food is group 01 (€3,091 per household), transport group 07 (€2,888), leisure is recreation (group 09, €795) plus restaurants and accommodation (group 11, €2,046), and utilities are items 044 (water and housing-related services, €548) and 045 (electricity, gas and other fuels, €1,168). “Other” is everything left once the housing group (€9,390) is removed. The imputed rent of owner-occupiers, €6,539 of that housing group, is not a cash cost and is excluded.

A sample monthly budget

A single person renting 60 m², using each country’s average everyday spending and the rent figures above:

Monthly	Lisbon	Porto	Portugal	Madrid	Valencia	Spain
Rent, 60 m²	€1,033	€857	€570	€1,404	€978	€906
Everyday spending	€627	€627	€627	€910	€827	€834
Total	€1,660	€1,484	€1,197	€2,314	€1,805	€1,740

Each rent is 60 times the €/m² figure, for example Lisbon 60 × €17.22 = €1,033. The Portuguese spending column is the national average for every city, but INE Portugal reports that households in the Lisbon metropolitan area spend more than the average: €26,891 a year per household against €23,900 nationally, about 13% more. Lisbon’s everyday spending is therefore probably above €627.

Why you cannot read this as a precise ratio

• Different rent measures. Portugal is contracted rent, Spain is asking rent. This overstates Spain’s rent and so overstates the gap.
• Different years. Portugal’s spending survey covers 2022/2023 and Spain’s covers 2025. Two years of price rises are missing from the Portuguese column.
• Residents, not newcomers. Both surveys average the whole population, including people who own their homes and long-standing tenants. A newcomer renting in a central district pays more per m² than any of these medians.
• Regional averages. The Spanish spending figures come from the region around each city, and the Portuguese ones are national.
• Taxes and health insurance are outside both. Income tax, a private health policy and what you pay before you arrive are in neither table.

The visa thresholds

The visas behind a move of this kind set very different income floors.

Single applicant, monthly	Spain non-lucrative visa	Portugal D7
Income you must show	€2,400	€920
Second adult	€600	€460
Each child	€600	€276

Spain’s figures are 400% of the €600 IPREM for the applicant and 100% for each family member (RD 1155/2024, art. 62); see the non-lucrative visa guide. For the D7 for retirees and people living on their own income, Portugal’s rule (Portaria 1563/2007, art. 2, as reproduced in a Portuguese consulate checklist) sets the means of subsistence against the minimum monthly wage: 100% for the first adult, 50% for further adults and 30% for each child under 18 or dependent adult child. With the 2026 minimum wage at €920 (DGERT), that is €920, €460 and €276. The same consulate also asks applicants to hold 12 minimum wages (€11,040) in an account at a Portuguese bank. That checklist is from a consulate in Brazil, so use the list from the Portuguese consulate that covers where you live.

The Spanish visa asks for 2.6 times the income of the Portuguese one (€2,400 against €920), a larger gap than the difference in everyday costs above. If you plan to work remotely instead, compare the Spanish digital nomad visa with Portugal’s own rules before you choose.