Cost of Living in Barcelona

The average net salary in Barcelona is way less than 1800. I work in corporation and even I don't make that money on a monthly basis. Most people make less than 1500 euro a month

I have been admitted to ESADE, barcelona for masters in business analytics. Would it be a good decision for an Indian , considering language barrier and visa sponsorship reqt for jobs. Do data scientists/ analysts get jobs in barcelona or spain and is being fluent in spanish neccessary to get a job?

@payton Suburban cities in the States like Irvine CA are safer and smarter than Barcelona and all other cities in europe lol

Hello,

I'm living as foreigner since 2016 and to be honest with the last two comments, guys if you are thinking to come to live in Barcelona city center alone and do you want a flat by yourself I think with a incoming of 3400€-3800€ it will be fine, in the begining on this Month the prices has been increased.

Hence 1000€ it will be a little bit extreme je.

Simondiy --> if I were you (working remotely) I will go out of barcelona maybe at north (costa brava) and find a good cheaper flat.

as you can see the accomodation on Barcelona has rose for 800(if you have luck) to 1200 [no included other tax and pluses].

take a look on Idealista.com, fotocasa.com, grocasa.com, etc.

good luck

is 1000 euro per month enough to live there or just nope ?

10,000 euro?? That would be like 20,000 euro gross. 240,000 euro per year. Do you feed gold to your kids?

A net salary of 4.000EUR monthly is enough to have a confortable life for a family of 4?

Anyone can provide some info on what a junior technical project manager salary looks like? is 2500-3000 realistic? thank you.

I am shocked about how many negative comments are here.

Barcelona is a great city with a lot to offer. There are plenty of cafes, restos, plazas and bars to enjoy. It has a great quality of life, and that's why so many people keep wanting to move to barcelona. There are qualified jobs, but also plenty of non-qualified jobs.. at the end of the day you have to be agressive and make a good situation for yourself, as with everywhere.

Rents are expensive in comparison to the salaries though. People here tend to be complacent and prefer to fight for the catalan cause as opposed to demanding higher salaries and job security. Apart from that, they are friendly and nice people.

#Manuel,I dont understand your comment. You claim that you can't live in Barcelona with less than 1500€!? Where do spend your money? I lived the first 2 years hearning 1300€ and I never had any financial distress (as #stfcl also claimed). I'm not saying that you should content with a 1300€ salary but, don't say that you can't live if you do. Right now, I'm spending 600€ on the rent and monthly bills. That being said, hearning 1600€, I still have 1000€ to spend in whatever I want. So, before saying those things, explain that you say that because you drink, smoke, go to parties, maybe have a car or a moto, go out for dinner a lot, etc. Obviously, it will always depend on the kind of life you have. Personally, I prefer to hearn a bit less and have good weather. Money is not everything and countries with bad weather are depressive! That's why you find so many nordics living here.

Having lived in Barcelona for the last 2 years and in Northern Europe for 11 years prior, a few considerations.

Barcelona is perfectly located on the Mediterranean, except for a couple of very hot summer months, the weather is sunny and mild and it's simply a great location climatwise. Also, despite the Catalans being a bit closed off, unless you come out with the topic of Independendence, people are friendly here, which is, with the sun, what I missed the most from the South. These are the main advantages of the city. One other thing, even if not experienced first hand is healthcare, which is tax subsidised and great quality.

Talking about the shortcomings, these unfortunately outnumber the good part:
- salaries are very low also for experienced workers, with many jobs in IT in the range of the 25k-30k per year gross
- living costs are ramping up, most likely due to rentals being out of control (a surge of almost 50% in the last 4 years was registered) and Airbnb allowing more speculation
- if you check official government stats, except for a few areas such as St Gervasi-Sarria, Pedralbes, Tibidado and some spots in the Eixample, 3/4 of the city report low incomes if not poverty (current poverty rate in Catalunya is almost 30%, which is appaling)
- petty crimes are a thing and the numbers ramp up every single year, making a large portion of the nicest areas risky to tread (Gotic, Raval, Barceloneta, Puerto Olimpico), there's an average of 200 crimes reported to police every hour (mugs, thefts, murders, burglaries)
- noisiest city in EU as for official sources and once you live here, you do believe it! from road traffic to the bar downstairs from you, going through the annoying Airbnb next door or the barking dogs, if you take into account that building insulation is non existent, you'll know what I mean
- job safety in Spain in general is a joke: employers are legally allowed to fire you with neither notice nor a valid reason, which means everyone can potentially be fired at any time, given that dismissal is easy and cheap ( I don't dare to guess what's gonna happen in the next financial crisis)
- looking for a qualified job once unemployed is horrible, sending dozens and hundreds of CVs without a response back and if you manage to get in touch with the recruiter, your salary expectations will be still too high (again, no city for qualified employees looking for a decent career and salary), you may get a job way quicker if you're a mobile/software dev/data scientist, however many of my friends are IT guys here and the salaries compared to Amsterdam or London are less than half of it (mind Amsterdam is about 40% more expensive than Bcn, however average salaries there are 100% higher)
- pollution is high and given it seldom rains, the air smells in many areas

Excuse the long checklist, but I hope my viewpoint as a non IT guy, middle class expat can give you some understanding. At the hand of the day I'm glad I came here to see that, as much as the weather makes it a lovely place, other downsides counterbalance it and that it's not the paradise on earth people expect it to be.

Do you live by the day, feel carefree about the future, don't mind a low salary and a lot of financial distress if you get sunny weather all year long? Or do you perhaps have the luck to work as a freelance for many clients that are Nordics based? In this case Bcn is a great option.

Do you need to plan things ahead, need financial and material stability to maintain mental sanity, do you plan on settling and buying a house of your own, build a family and have savings? If you rely on doing this with a Spanish contract, either you don't move here at all or you move for a couple of years (as @RealTalk suggests) and keep in mind you'll need to leave.

Since I moved here, I have enjoyed every ray of sunshine, however I've never felt so unstable in my life as here: in Northern Europe the weather is crap and people may be more closed off, however you never feel like your career/financial situation is too much at risk. There you feel like you can do better in life, which is something Bcn can't give you.

Best luck to you all!