Madrid is among the urban areas where housing construction has fallen furthest behind population growth, according to the OECD’s 2026 report on regions and cities. The organisation also names Lisbon as a city where the imbalance between housing supply and demand is particularly pronounced, linking the shortfall to rising prices and worsening access to housing.
Across large metropolitan areas in the OECD, each new home has had to accommodate an average of 1.8 additional residents, compared with 1.2 in medium-sized cities and 0.6 in smaller ones. The report says this pattern appears in 17 countries and is especially visible in cities that have experienced sharp price increases.
The study does not provide Madrid-specific figures for construction, rents or years of income needed to buy a home. It does, however, cite the city as a case where the gap between population and housing stock is particularly marked. Its comparison of urban-centre prices with national averages puts Madrid’s difference at 24.9%, close to the OECD average of 27%.
Housing prices tend to be highest in urban centres, where employment, education and economic opportunities are concentrated. Across the 23 countries assessed, homes in city centres cost an average of 27% more than the national average. Prices in metropolitan areas were 15% below that benchmark, while those outside metropolitan areas were 34% lower. The OECD attributes the differences to demand in urban centres and constraints on construction, including limited land, regulation and local opposition to development.
The report also finds that the largest metropolitan areas are often the least affordable. In Spain, the Madrid metropolitan area is among the most pressured in terms of affordability, surpassed only by Palma de Mallorca and Málaga-Marbella, and significantly more strained than Valencia, Seville or Zaragoza.
The OECD questions whether bringing vacant homes onto the market can, by itself, ease housing pressures in major cities. Vacant homes are more prevalent where demand is weaker: the average vacancy rate is 11% in urban centres, 14% in metropolitan outskirts and 19% outside those areas. The report says this geographic mismatch limits how much empty housing can do to relieve pressure in urban centres.
The OECD’s findings point to a persistent gap between people moving towards cities with more jobs and opportunities and the pace of new housing construction. In Madrid, the organisation says, that imbalance is among the most pronounced.
Sources: El País Economía.