Salamanca
The 19th-century grid that still sets the top of Madrid's rental market: straight streets, buildings with a concierge and five Metro lines. You can see what you pay for.
L2L4L5L6L9Madrid neighborhoods beyond the postcard
What living is really like in the areas that rise to the top once budget and weekly journeys enter the decision—including places newcomers rarely consider.
For newcomers
Where people moving to Madrid start looking
The areas people ask about when they move to Madrid with a family or for work: what they offer, how their rent compares with the average and how they connect, using official data.
ChamberĂ
Squares with café terraces, long-standing food markets and seven Metro lines, a short hop from Sol. It is the Madrid many people picture before they arrive — priced accordingly.
L1L2L4L5L6L7L10Retiro
Madrid's most famous park as your back garden, quiet streets around it and the centre fifteen minutes away. One of the few central areas where life with children is easy.
L1L2L6L9ChamartĂn
Colonies of 1930s houses, spacious flats and ChamartĂn railway station inside the district. North Madrid for people who want calm, space and the airport within easy reach.
L1L4L7L8L9L10C3C4Centro
Everything on foot, at any hour, in the neighborhoods from the photos. The centre rewards people who live it on the street and wears out anyone who needs to sleep with the window open.
L1L2L3L5L10C3C4Arturo Soria and Conde de Orgaz
Houses with gardens, quiet colonies and the Lycée Français inside the city of Madrid. Metro line 4 runs the length of the area and the airport is half an hour away.
L4L8Las Tablas and Sanchinarro
Neighborhoods built in the 2000s, with gated developments, pools and parking, minutes from the TelefĂłnica and BBVA headquarters. Madrid, but with the logic of a new town.
L10ML1Aravaca
A village absorbed by Madrid that still feels like one: villas, colonies and quiet streets, with the American School a walk away and commuter trains to PrĂncipe PĂo.
C7C10ML2Pozuelo de AlarcĂłn
The town with the highest average income in Spain, three international schools within its limits and commuter trains to PrĂncipe PĂo. The classic choice for families moving to west Madrid.
C7C10ML2Majadahonda
A town in west Madrid with its own centre, a major public hospital and commuter trains — and more street life than most of the developments around it.
C7C10Las Rozas
Developments with gardens, its own business parks and the national football headquarters, about twenty kilometres from Sol. The next step when Pozuelo and Majadahonda feel short of space.
C7C10La Moraleja
Villas on large plots, international schools inside the estate and the A-1 business parks next door. A different way to live in Madrid: with a car and a garden.
L10Tres Cantos
A town designed from scratch in the 1970s, with parks between the blocks, its own technology park and the C4 line straight to Sol. Quiet north Madrid, without giving up the train.
C4Madrid city
Inside the city boundary
Connected neighborhoods with their own daily life and sharply different rents only a few kilometres apart.
Puente de Vallecas
One of the few parts of Madrid city where rents are still comparatively low and the centre is fifteen minutes away. Metro line 1 does most of the work.
L1C2C7L6Carabanchel
The district that has changed most over the last decade while staying affordable. Three Metro lines, artists' studios and a park few outsiders know about.
L5L6L11C5Usera
The district with the most interesting food in Madrid and some of the lowest rents in the city. Madrid RĂo is both its border and its park.
L6L12L3Tetuán
It sits right next to the Cuatro Torres skyscrapers and ChamartĂn, yet two streets back from Bravo Murillo prices behave like an outer district's.
L1L9L10C4C7Ciudad Lineal
Wide streets, buildings with courtyards and a calm that costs a fortune in the centre. Metro line 5 runs through the whole district.
L5L7L4L2Aluche
The southwest's interchange: Metro, CercanĂas commuter trains and intercity buses in one place, at Madrid-city prices but not central ones.
L5L10C5Villaverde
Where rents fall furthest without leaving the municipality of Madrid. Four CercanĂas commuter-rail stations make up for much of the distance.
C3C4L3L12Vicálvaro
A village absorbed by the city, with its own university campus and newer housing at prices closer to the suburbs than to Madrid city.
L9C2C7San Blas–Canillejas
Fifteen minutes from the airport and the IFEMA exhibition centre, with Metro into the city and prices below the Madrid city average.
L5L7L2Metropolitan Madrid
Beyond the M-40
Independent towns where the same budget buys more space while keeping a real rail or Metro connection to Madrid.
Getafe
A city in its own right, not a commuter dormitory: a university campus, a hospital, a historic centre and three CercanĂas stations into Madrid.
C4L12L3Leganés
One of the most affordable options in the whole metropolitan area, with Metro, CercanĂas trains and a university campus inside the town.
L12C5L10AlcorcĂłn
Twenty minutes to PrĂncipe PĂo by train, plus two Metro lines. One of the best-connected options in the metropolitan area for west Madrid.
C5L10L12MĂłstoles
Some of the lowest rents in the whole metropolitan area, with a university campus, Metro and CercanĂas trains inside the town.
C5L12Alcalá de Henares
A university city with a UNESCO World Heritage old town, around half an hour from Atocha by train, with rents that look nothing like Madrid's.
C2C7Rivas-Vaciamadrid
The town with the youngest population in the Madrid region, a direct Metro line into the city and the Sureste Regional Park as its back garden.
L9Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes
Two towns that have grown into one, with a direct Metro line and northern Madrid's business parks ten minutes away.
L10L1C4