Author Dmitry Sheynkman Residence permit expert, tax adviser 14 September 2026 12 min read Message the author

Legal review by Irina Firsova, member of the Barcelona Bar Association no. 46.385 — check the ICAB register ↗

Moving to Madrid in 2026: residence permits, neighbourhoods, prices and taxes

You can move to Madrid on any basis for a Spanish residence permit; the most common are the digital nomad visa, the non-working residence permit and employment. Madrid is the largest city in the country: it has 3,506,730 residents, unemployment below the Spanish average and some of the highest salaries, but also the most expensive housing. Below we cover which residence permit to choose, how to move step by step, which neighbourhood or suburb to live in, how much flats cost, which taxes apply in Madrid, what to expect from schools, work and transport, and where the capital falls short of the coast.

Moving to Madrid: answers to the key questions

Can you move there? Yes, with an ordinary Spanish residence permit. Applications go to the Madrid immigration office (Extranjería).
Which residence permit is most common? Remote workers take the digital nomad visa: income from €2,849 a month. People living on savings and passive income take the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant. In Madrid, where unemployment is below the national average, people also find salaried jobs more often.
How much does housing cost? In August 2026 a flat in Madrid cost on average €6,471 per square metre, and rent was €23.3 per square metre a month. That is 2.2 times the average purchase price in Spain.
Where to live? Centro and Chamberí for city life, Salamanca and Retiro for expensive and prestigious addresses, Usera, Vallecas and Villaverde for the lowest prices, and the suburbs of Pozuelo, Las Rozas, Majadahonda and Alcobendas near the international schools.
What are the taxes? The regional income tax rate in Madrid is lower than in the Valencian Community, and the tax on buying a resale home is 6%.
Straight to permanent residence? No. First a temporary residence permit; long-term residence comes after five years of legal residence.

Why people move to Madrid

People choose Madrid for work and opportunities. In the Comunidad de Madrid (the Madrid region), unemployment in the second quarter of 2026 was 7.58% against 9.87% for Spain, and the average annual salary in 2024 was €34,410 against €29,540 nationally. The city is home to the ministries, the offices of large companies, Spain’s largest airport, major hospitals and universities, and it lives all year round rather than by the season.

The price for this is the most expensive housing in the country, a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters, and no sea. The city itself, its history, sights and food are described in our overview of the capital of Spain, and you can compare Madrid with other cities on rent and income in the ranking of Spanish cities.

Which residence permit to get for living in Madrid

The route is chosen by your source of income, not by the city. In Madrid the immigration office has several branches, including at C/ Silva, 19 and C/ García de Paredes, 65; foreigners’ documents are processed by the police at Avda. de los Poblados, 51. All routes with their requirements and timelines are in our overview of Spanish residence permits.

Route	Who it suits	Income or funds	Can you work
Digital nomad visa	Remote employees and freelancers with clients outside Spain	From €2,849 a month, plus €1,069 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one	Yes, for foreign clients
Non-working residence permit	People living on savings, rental income, dividends or a pension	From €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) plus €600 a month for each family member	No, including remotely
Employment	Those with a job offer from a Spanish employer	Salary under the contract	Yes, for that employer
Startup visa	Founders of innovative companies	A business plan approved by ENISA (Spain’s state innovation agency)	Yes, in your own project
Study	Students of Complutense University, the Autonomous University, Carlos III University and other institutions	Funds for the period of study	Up to 30 hours a week
Settlement (arraigo)	Those who have already lived in Spain for two years	Depends on the type of arraigo	Yes

The digital nomad visa threshold is linked to the minimum wage and in 2026 it rose retroactively — details on the income threshold. After five years on any of these routes you can obtain permanent residence in Spain, and after ten you can apply for citizenship.

How to move to Madrid: step by step

Choose a route and check that you meet the income requirement for the whole family.
Decide where to apply: through the Spanish consulate in your country or, if the route allows it, from within Spain. The digital nomad visa can be obtained while already legally in Spain — in that case the residence permit is issued straight away for up to three years.
Get an NIE — without the foreigner identification number you cannot rent a flat or open a bank account — how to get an NIE.
Gather documents: apostilled criminal record certificates, proof of income, health insurance, sworn translations into Spanish.
Rent a home. Rents in Madrid are the highest in the country, good flats go quickly, and landlords ask for proof of income and a deposit. Short-term rental is more convenient for the first months — how to rent a flat in Spain.
Register at the town hall — empadronamiento (municipal registration). Registration is needed for school, healthcare and transport passes.
Give fingerprints and collect your residence card (TIE) at the police station.
Get a TSI health card. It is issued at your local health centre: you need your residence card, a recent registration certificate and a document from the Seguridad Social (Spanish social security) confirming your entitlement to healthcare. The non-working residence permit requires private insurance from a Spanish company — which policy works.
Open a bank account and sort out taxes — how to open a bank account in Spain.

Madrid’s neighbourhoods: where to find a home

Madrid is divided into 21 districts, and prices between them differ by more than a factor of three: a square metre costs €10,841 in Salamanca and €3,302 in Villaverde. Purchase and rental prices, transport, schools and safety for every district are covered in a separate article on Madrid neighbourhoods.

Centro — Sol, Malasaña, Chueca, La Latina, Lavapiés: everything within walking distance, bars, theatres, tourists. The flats are old, often small and noisy; €7,745/m².
Chamberí — one of the most popular districts to live in: calmer than the centre, handsome buildings, markets and the metro; €9,209/m².
Salamanca — the most expensive district in the city, €10,841/m²: boulevards, boutiques and offices.
Retiro — next to the park of the same name, popular with families; €8,444/m².
Chamartín — the business north, with office towers, the railway station and the Santiago Bernabéu stadium; €8,222/m².
Usera, Puente de Vallecas and Villaverde — the south of the city, with the most affordable prices, from €3,302 to €3,626/m²; in Villaverde prices rose 25% over the year.

Madrid’s suburbs

Many families move not to the city itself but to the suburbs of the Comunidad de Madrid — there is more space, houses with gardens and international schools, and Cercanías commuter trains and buses run to the centre.

Pozuelo de Alarcón (89,770 residents), Las Rozas (99,037), Majadahonda (73,625) and Boadilla del Monte (66,349) — the north-west, popular with families; Pozuelo is home to The British School and the American School of Madrid.
Alcobendas (123,342), San Sebastián de los Reyes (96,992) and Tres Cantos (54,592) — the north, with business parks and King’s College in La Moraleja.
Alcalá de Henares (203,208), Getafe (193,238) and Rivas-Vaciamadrid (103,148) — large towns to the south and east with universities and industry.

Suburb populations: INE at 1 January 2025.

Russian speakers in Madrid

According to the INE annual census, at 1 January 2025 the city of Madrid was home to 3,928 Russian citizens and 10,359 Ukrainian citizens, and the Comunidad de Madrid as a whole to 6,007 and 26,557. There are 655,402 foreigners in the city, or 18.8% of residents. There are fewer Russians here than on the Mediterranean coast, but the Russian Embassy in Madrid runs the only official Russian school in Spain following the Russian curriculum — more in the article Russian schools in Spain. How the community is spread across the country is covered in Russians in Spain.

Cost of living in Madrid in 2026

Buying a home. According to Idealista, in August 2026 it was €6,471/m², 2.2% more than a year earlier; the peak was in May, at €6,745/m². The Spanish average is €2,924/m².
Rent. In August 2026, €23.3/m² a month, up 5.1% year on year; €21.5/m² across the Comunidad de Madrid and €15.1/m² across Spain. A 70 m² flat at the city’s average price costs about €1,630 a month. Since July 2026 Idealista has calculated prices using a new methodology, so they are not directly comparable with figures from before July.
Tourist lets. Plan RESIDE, published in September 2025, restricted tourist flats: in the historic centre they are allowed only in buildings used entirely for that purpose, and in the rest of the city only on ground floors with a separate entrance. If you are buying a flat to let by the night, check this before the purchase.
Rent control. No municipality in the Comunidad de Madrid has been declared a stressed rental market area with a price cap, so landlords set the rent for new leases themselves.
Transport. A monthly pass for zone A costs €32.70, and the Abono Joven youth pass for the whole network €10 (prices valid until the end of 2026).
Minimum budget. The residence permit requirements give a benchmark: for living without working, from €2,400 a month for one person; for the digital nomad visa, from €2,849; with Madrid rents, that is only just enough. How to work out a family budget is covered in the article how much money you need to live in Spain.

Taxes in Madrid

After 183 days in Spain in a calendar year you become a tax resident and pay tax on your worldwide income — taxes in Spain for individuals. The regional part of taxes in Madrid is set by the Comunidad de Madrid.

IRPF (personal income tax). The regional scale of the Comunidad de Madrid runs from 8.5% to 20.5% (the 2025 scale); the Spain-wide part of the tax is added on top. In January 2026 the regional government announced a further cut of 0.5 points in the rates from 2027 — so far this is an announcement, not a law.
Beckham Law. People who move for a job, remote workers and some entrepreneurs can pay 24% on income up to €600,000 instead of the progressive scale in the year of the move and the following five years.
Deduction for new residents from abroad — 20% of investments in shares and bonds for those who moved on or after 1 January 2024 and had not been Spanish tax residents for the previous five years; the investments must be held for six years.
Deduction for renting a home — 30% of the rent, up to €1,237.20 a year, for tenants under 40 with a taxable base of up to €26,414.22.
Deduction for the birth of a child — €721.70 per child in the year of birth and the following two years.
Tax on buying a resale home (ITP) — 6%, or 4% for large families; stamp duty (AJD) on buying a new build is 0.75%.
Inheritance and gifts between spouses, children and parents — a 99% reduction. The regional 100% wealth tax relief does not currently work in full, because the Spain-wide solidarity tax on large fortunes is still in force.

You can work for yourself by registering as an autónomo (self-employed) — step-by-step guide.

Work in Madrid

Madrid has the strongest job market in Spain: unemployment in the Comunidad de Madrid in the second quarter of 2026 was 7.58%, and the average salary in 2024 was €34,410 a year, the second highest in the country. Government bodies, financial, consulting and technology companies, tourism and services are concentrated here. The minimum wage is €1,221 a month, paid 14 times a year. For remote workers with foreign clients, housing in Madrid costs more than on the coast, but it is easier to find a local job if you need one later.

Schools and universities

Language. Madrid has one official language, Spanish; there is no second compulsory language at school, as there is in Valencia or Barcelona.
Bilingual state schools. In the 2025/26 school year more than 600 state schools in the Comunidad de Madrid teach in Spanish and English.
International schools — King’s College in La Moraleja (Alcobendas), The British School and the American School of Madrid in Pozuelo, St. George in Hortaleza, Hastings School in Chamartín, and the French lycée and the German school in the city.
Russian school — at the Russian Embassy, following the Russian curriculum.
Universities — Complutense, the Autonomous University, Carlos III, the Polytechnic University and private institutions.

Healthcare and transport

Hospitals. The largest public ones are La Paz, 12 de Octubre, Gregorio Marañón, Ramón y Cajal, Hospital Clínico San Carlos and La Princesa. Primary care is provided at your local health centre.
Metro. In 2025 the Madrid metro carried a record 736.9 million passengers; it is complemented by EMT buses and Cercanías commuter trains.
Madrid-Barajas Airport — the largest in Spain: 68.18 million passengers in 2025, with direct flights to Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
Trains. High-speed trains run from Atocha and Chamartín stations to Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Málaga and other cities, so a weekend by the sea is a realistic plan.

Madrid’s climate

The climate is continental: according to AEMET’s 1981–2010 normals for the Retiro station, the average annual temperature is 15.0 °C, 6.3 °C in January and 25.6 °C in July, with 421 mm of rainfall. Summers are hot and dry, and in winter there are frosts at night. There is no sea — the nearest coast is several hours’ drive away.

Downsides of living in Madrid

The most expensive housing in Spain. Rent eats up a noticeable share of even a good salary, and competition for flats is fierce.
No sea and a continental climate: hot summers and cold winters.
A big city. Traffic jams, noise and long commutes from the suburbs.
Appointments with government offices. Free slots at the immigration office and for fingerprints are taken quickly.
Fewer Russian speakers than on the Alicante coast and in Valencia.

Madrid or another city

Madrid or Barcelona. The country’s two largest job markets. Madrid has one language and a lower tax on buying a home; Barcelona has the sea and compulsory Catalan at school — moving to Barcelona.
Madrid or Valencia. Madrid has more jobs and higher salaries; Valencia has the sea and housing almost half the price: €3,469/m² against €6,471/m² — moving to Valencia.
Madrid or Alicante. Alicante offers the sea, sunshine and the largest Russian-speaking community, but work is mainly in tourism — moving to Alicante.

Regions are compared on climate, prices, work and schools on the relocation map.

Frequently asked questions about moving to Madrid

Can I move to live in Madrid?

Yes. People move here on the usual Spanish residence permit routes: the digital nomad visa, the non-working residence permit, employment, study, a startup or family. Applications go to the Madrid immigration office.

Which residence permit is best for moving to Madrid?

For remote workers, the digital nomad visa with income from €2,849 a month. For those living on savings or passive income, the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant and €600 for each family member. For those who have found a job, an employment residence permit.

How much does it cost to rent a flat in Madrid?

In August 2026 the average rent in Madrid was €23.3 per square metre a month, or about €1,630 for a 70 m² flat. These are the highest rents in Spain; the suburbs are cheaper.

How much does it cost to buy a flat in Madrid?

In August 2026, an average of €6,471 per square metre. The most expensive district is Salamanca (€10,841/m²), and the most affordable of the districts in the report is Villaverde (€3,302/m²).

Which neighbourhood of Madrid is best to live in?

Centro and Chamberí for city life, Salamanca and Retiro for prestige, and Usera, Puente de Vallecas and Villaverde for lower prices. Families with children often choose the suburbs of Pozuelo, Las Rozas, Majadahonda and Alcobendas, where the international schools are.

What taxes apply in Madrid?

The regional income tax scale runs from 8.5% to 20.5%, and the tax on buying a resale home is 6%. There are deductions for renting a home for young people, for the birth of a child, and 20% of investments for new residents from abroad.

How many Russians live in Madrid?

At 1 January 2025 the city of Madrid was home to 3,928 Russian citizens and 10,359 Ukrainian citizens, and the Comunidad de Madrid as a whole to 6,007 and 26,557.

Which is better to live in: Madrid or Valencia?

Madrid has more jobs and higher salaries; Valencia has the sea and housing almost half the price. Remote workers and families who value the climate and the sea are usually better suited to Valencia, and those building a career in Spain to Madrid.

How we can help you move to Madrid

We choose the residence permit route to fit your income and family, prepare and submit the documents, and support you through to the residence card and autónomo registration. The most common options are the turnkey digital nomad residence permit and the non-working residence permit.

We can also help you find a home in Madrid, to rent or to buy: we work with vetted estate agencies and mortgage brokers and check the contract and documents before you sign. See property search in Spain.