It is in the Ciutat Vella district and, contrary to what one might think, it is not the Raval. The Barcelona neighborhood with the smallest apartments is located at sea level and, built in 1753 to address the housing shortage in walled Barcelona, it is probably the most tertiary area of the city. The homes sold in Barceloneta have an average of 44.1 m².
We are talking about the average constructed surface area of the apartments according to public data on sales registered in Barcelona during 2023.
Three and a half apartments would be needed in Barceloneta to be comparable to one apartment in the neighborhood with the largest homes, Pedralbes, whose average surface area is 153.8 m².
Pedralbes, in the Les Corts district, was born as a garden city project for the bourgeoisie and is today the most exclusive residential area of Barcelona. It houses mansions and isolated single-family homes, as well as spacious apartments in communities with garden patios, concierge service or other special services and equipment.
In the entire city of Barcelona, second-hand homes have an average surface area of 79.0 m², while new developments reach 85.9 m², according to the same data from Habitatge.
Surprisingly, both neighborhoods at the extremes of the list also have something in common: the price per square meter is well above average.
Barceloneta has sold its apartments in 2023 for €5,020.4/m². An apartment with an average surface area, therefore, would have been priced at around €221,399.2.
Pedralbes has an average price of €5,650.2/m², but, as its homes have a larger surface area, the apartments were registered at an average of €869,006.9.
When analyzing the data available in Habitatge, it is easy to observe a positive correlation between the surface area of the homes and the disposable income per household in each neighborhood of Barcelona. In general, the neighborhoods with the lowest income also have the smallest apartments.
With the exception of areas such as Barceloneta, whose massive touristification has inflated the price of apartments in recent years, this connection is usually also reflected in the price of housing per square meter.
No other neighborhood in Ciutat Vella is among the top 10 in the list of neighborhoods with the smallest apartments. And it is that the Raval (64.2 m²), Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera (73.5 m²) and the Gòtic (80.7 m²) all have homes with a higher average surface area.
The district with the smallest homes is Nou Barris,
with an average of 63.5 m². Six of its neighborhoods are at the top of the list: les Roquetes (55.5 m²), Verdun (58.0 m²), Trinitat Nova y Ciutat Meridiana (59.5 m²), Prosperitat (61.5 m²) and the Hill of Peira (63.0 m²).
These neighborhoods are, therefore, some with the lowest price per square meter in the city, from €1,732.2/m² in Ciutat Meridiana to €2,651.2/m² in Turó de la Peira.
Of the five neighborhoods with the largest flats, the other four belong to the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi. We are talking about the Tres Torres (146.0 m²), Vallvidrera, the Tibidabo and the Plains (142.2 m²), Sant Gervasi-Galvany (134.8 m²) and the Bonanova (128.9 m²).
Likewise, the district is known for having the highest housing price per square meter in the entire city, with an average of €5,975.3/m².
