Affordable rental housing in Spain: how to apply and what the income limits are

On Friday 6 November, CASA 47, the housing body of Spain’s housing ministry, opened 22 rental homes in the Marina Alta for application. Eighteen are in Beniarbeig, two in Dénia and two in Pedreguer.

The window is short: 7 to 26 November 2026. And unlike many Spanish schemes, being quick buys you nothing, because the homes are allocated by a lottery held before a notary.

Below: what alquiler asequible actually is, who qualifies under the published conditions, what that income band means in euros, and what the conditions conspicuously do not say. That last part matters most if you are a foreigner.

What affordable rental is, and what it is not

Three things get mixed up in Spain, and it pays to keep them apart.

The open market. You rent from a private landlord or an agency at whatever the market asks. No income test, no waiting list, and the highest price.

Social housing, vivienda social or vivienda de proteccion publica. For low-income households, strictly assessed, often with long municipal or regional waiting lists.

Affordable rental, alquiler asequible. That is the category here, and it sits between the two. The homes belong to the state, the rent is capped, but the target group is broader than social housing: middle incomes qualify too. The ceiling here is seven and a half times the IPREM, which is not a low income.

The body behind it is CASA 47, in full Entidad Estatal de Vivienda y Suelo. It sits under the Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana and, according to the announcement, handles the whole chain: preparing land, building, allocating and managing the tenancies.

This round covers 442 homes across six autonomous communities. In the Comunitat Valenciana there are 86, spread over 28 municipalities.

The 22 homes: where they are, and what nobody has published

Of the 27 homes in Alicante province, 22 are in the Marina Alta. That is more than four fifths, which is a striking share for a comarca this size.

The split:

• Beniarbeig: 18 homes
• Dénia: 2 homes
• Pedreguer: 2 homes

The other five in the province are in Benidorm (1), El Campello (1), Elche (2) and Guardamar del Segura (1).

On price we have to be straight with you. The announcement gives a single range: 388 to 1,030 euros a month. That is the spread across all 86 homes in the three Valencian provinces, depending on the municipality. It is not a price for Dénia or Pedreguer, and no per-home price has been published. Anyone quoting you a Marina Alta figure is making it up.

The same goes for size: 45 to 164 square metres across those same 86 homes. How many bedrooms the Beniarbeig homes have is nowhere stated.

What is fixed is the principle: rent may not exceed 30 per cent of the average income of the municipality, and stays within the limits the region sets. An expensive coastal town therefore produces a different rent from an inland village.

You see the price per home on the portal itself, on the listing you click.

Who qualifies under the published conditions

The announcement lists three requirements. No more.

You own no home. There is no note on whether that means Spanish property only or also a house back home. That is not a detail, and it is exactly the kind of question you want answered before 26 November.

A combined income between 2 and 7.5 times the IPREM. Combined means the whole unidad de convivencia, so everyone who will live there. Note the lower limit: you can also earn too little. This is not a scheme for households with no income.

Meeting the specific economic requirements of the home you apply for. Each listing states the annual income the household has to prove. That figure is not the same for all 22 homes.

That is the lot. No age limit, no requirement to live there already, nothing about nationality.

The income test: what 2 to 7.5 times the IPREM means

The IPREM, in full Indicador Público de Renta de Efectos Múltiples, is the yardstick Spain hangs almost all of its income-related schemes on. It is not a minimum wage, it is an accounting unit.

For 2026 the IPREM is widely quoted at 600 euros a month. That figure comes from several sources that agree with each other, but we could not read it in the official state gazette, so we present it for what it is: the commonly cited number.

And here is the trap. Spain sometimes counts the IPREM over twelve monthly payments and sometimes over fourteen. Which of the two this scheme uses is not stated in the announcement. The difference is not small:

• On twelve payments the annual figure is 7,200 euros. Two to seven and a half times works out at roughly 14,400 to 54,000 euros of combined annual income.
• On fourteen payments the annual figure is 8,400 euros, and the band becomes roughly 16,800 to 63,000 euros.

Treat those numbers as direction, not as a threshold. The figure that counts is the annual income shown on the portal for that specific home. That is the only number you can rely on.

A second question the announcement does not answer: does income from abroad count, and how do you prove it? A Dutch or British pension is income, but it does not appear on the Spanish tax return of someone who is not yet a tax resident here.

What the conditions do not say, and why that matters

This is where most guides go wrong. They fill the gaps with what is usual in other Spanish schemes. We will not, because it is not written down.

Nothing about empadronamiento. Municipal housing schemes often require you to be registered in the town, sometimes for years. This call comes from central government and does not mention it. That does not automatically mean the requirement is absent: it may appear in the full terms on the portal. It does mean nobody can claim it exists without checking. How registering works is in our guide to empadronamiento.

Nothing about residency or nationality. No residence permit requirement, no Spanish citizenship requirement, and no statement to the contrary either.

Nothing about age. So this is not the youth scheme. If you are under 35 and mainly want help with rent rather than a home, look at the bono alquiler joven instead.

What you will need regardless for any Spanish administrative step is a NIE, your tax identification number as a foreigner. Without it you cannot file an application anywhere.

About the portal itself we can promise little: it is JavaScript-driven and returned only its title when we fetched it. Whether it asks for a certificado digital, Cl@ve or just a NIE number, we could not establish. Assume a digital identity is needed and do not leave arranging one until 25 November.

Applying: the deadline, the portal and the lottery

The window. Applications opened on Saturday 7 November 2026 and close on Thursday 26 November 2026. Barely three weeks.

Where. Everything runs through the official CASA 47 portal, portal.casa47.es, with an online form. No paper route and no town hall counter is mentioned.

And now the part that changes your strategy. Allocation is by lottery before a notary. The order in which applications arrive decides nothing. An application number is drawn at random, and the rest are ordered from there.

Two consequences. You do not need to sit at your screen at midnight on 7 November. And you can apply for several homes: each household gets the first available home from the list it submitted. You choose that order, and that is your only lever.

After the draw. CASA 47 checks that you meet the conditions and makes a provisional allocation. Those who qualify may view the home. Only then come signature and keys.

No date for the draw has been published.

The tenancy: fourteen years, and what comes after

This is the point that gets the least coverage and matters most to a tenant.

The tenancy starts with a term of fourteen years. After that it renews automatically in periods of seven years, as long as you keep meeting most of the conditions. The total can run to seventy five years.

Set that against the Spanish open market, where an ordinary tenancy runs five years with a private landlord and seven with a company, and you see why these homes are worth an application even if your current place is fine.

The flip side: those conditions keep applying. Start earning considerably more, or buy a property, and it affects your tenancy at renewal.

If you would rather buy than rent: everything that lands on top of the asking price is in our guide to the costs of buying a house in Spain, and what you pay the town hall every year after that is in the piece on IBI.

Common questions

Can I apply as a foreigner? The published conditions mention no nationality and no residency requirement. They do not exclude you. What you will need is a NIE and almost certainly a digital identity.

What does a home in Beniarbeig cost? That has not been published. The only published figure is 388 to 1,030 euros across all 86 Valencian homes. The price per home appears on the portal.

Do I need to be quick? No. It is a notarised lottery, not first come first served. You do need to be in before 26 November.

Can I apply for more than one home? Yes. You get the first available home from your own list, so the order you submit matters.

Does my house back home count as owning property? The announcement says nothing about that. Ask CASA 47 before you file.

How long can I stay? Fourteen years to start, renewable in seven-year periods, up to seventy five years.

When is the draw? Not published.

Will there be another round? This is not the first: a round of 153 Sareb homes ran in August, which also included Pedreguer and Dénia. Another round is plausible, but none has been announced.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.