El Diario de la Vivienda

The average contracted rent in Sabadell is €869 a month.

The figure comes from INCASÒL and is calculated over 708 contracts with the deposit already lodged. In other words: rents actually signed, not prices asked for — the gap between the two usually runs to several dozen euros.

That's €268 a month less than Barcelona's average (€1,137).

It's the 4th most expensive of the twelve municipalities this paper tracks.

A standard residential lease runs five years if the landlord is a private individual and seven if it's a company, with rent updated against the index set by Spain's statistics institute (INE).

An 80 m² flat in Terrassa is valued at €183,200. Rented at €765 a month, that generates €9,180 a year — so buying equals 20.0 years of rent.

It's the mirror image of yield: the more years, the more expensive buying is relative to renting. It doesn't include mortgage interest, purchase taxes, or renovation costs, all of which push the figure higher.

As a reference point, Spain's national average has historically moved between 15 and 25 years depending on the cycle.

Terrassa is the 12th most expensive of the twelve municipalities in the area, and the 8th most expensive to rent. Where those two rankings don't match is where the opportunities tend to sit.

An 80 m² flat in Rubí is valued at €196,100, and its average rent is €816 a month — €9,792 a year. That works out to a gross yield of 5.0%.

Gross means before anything else: council tax (IBI), community fees, insurance, one-off building charges, income tax on the rent, and any months the flat sits empty. Net yield lands well below that.

It's the 3rd most of the twelve municipalities in the area. Worth distrusting the shortcut of always going for the highest yield: high yield tends to travel with low prices, and low prices with weaker rental demand and higher turnover.

The figure is for comparing municipalities against each other, not for deciding on a purchase. A specific flat can yield well above or well below its city's average.

An 80 m² flat is valued at €402,900 in Sant Cugat and €233,500 in Cerdanyola: a €169,400 gap.

Where they do split is on yield: Sant Cugat returns 0.3 points less a year (4.4% versus 4.7%).

On rent, Sant Cugat signs at €1,476 a month and Cerdanyola at €906: a €570 gap across 469 deposit-lodged contracts between the two.

Comparing towns is useful for orientation, not for pricing. Within a single town, the gap between neighbourhoods is usually bigger than the one between these two.