Almost ten years ago I wrote an article comparing the cities of Malaga and Barcelona. “Is Malaga the new Barcelona?” I asked. This article sparked a craze of copy cat articles over the years, even the likes of Daily Mail hacks jumped on the bandwagon. If you Google it you will see multiple articles, including my own. Well, I was thinking about this comparison recently and wondering what, if anything, had changed about the two cities in terms of those things that I had compared back then. The weather remains basically the same thus far (not certain given the climate these days). Malaga still has 300 more hours of sunshine every year than Barcelona. However, Messi no longer plays for Barcelona, which I’m sure makes it seem like there’s less sunshine for BCN football fans.
The population of both cities has grown. Barcelona now has the highest population it’s had since 1991, with 1.7 million people. At 432,556, Barcelona’s population is 25% foreign born. Back in 2015, when I wrote the original article, I said that Malaga had a population of 600,000 but, reviewing the statistics, I was a little ahead of myself. It was 560,000 people. The current population is 587,000 people with 16.7% being foreign.
At that time, Barcelona had a much more developed metro system, with eight lines and 165 stations, while Malaga had only two lines and 10 stations. Malaga still has two lines (with two more planned) but now has 19 stations. Not too shabby an improvement but still dwarfed by Barcelona’s, which has grown from eight lines and 165 stations to 12 lines and 189 stations. Can’t win them all. That means that Malaga has grown a little more quickly than Barcelona, 4.82% vs 3.44%. Although, at the provincial level, Barcelona continues to grow a little more quickly and Malaga is the fifth province in Spain in terms of population growth.
It will have an expected population growth of 20% over the next fifteen years. Almost all of that will come from the arrival of foreign-born people, which will make up 1/3 of Malaga province’s population by 2039. By the way, top spot goes to Almería, the population of which is expected to grow by 28% over the next 15 years.
In terms of economic growth, both Barcelona and Malaga rely heavily on tourism. As a result of the post-Covid surge in tourism, which continues apace, Malaga saw its provincial economy grow by 3.6% in 2023, while that of Barcelona grew by a still-healthy 2.9%. The one unfortunate way in which Malaga is becoming more like Barcelona is in terms of cost of living. Back in 2015, Expatistan.com said that Malaga was 24% cheaper and now says that difference has declined to 7% – although they have not a lot of data, so it could be off.
In fact, according to Numbeo the difference remains very similar, with the cost of living (including rent) 21.1% higher in Barcelona. Breaking that down to a monthly amount, Numbeo says that “you would need around 4,602€ in Barcelona to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 3,800€ in Malaga.” That’s a substantial difference.
That difference extends to property prices as well. When I wrote the original article back in 2015, Spain as a whole was just beginning to emerge from a massive property crisis, which saw huge drops in property prices from their 2007 peaks. The numbers for 2014 were in and the price per meter for a property in Barcelona were 3,188€. For Malaga, the price was basically half at 1,559€. Ah, the good old, bad old days. But what a difference a decade makes.
To buy property in Barcelona today, the third highest property prices in the country, you can expect to pay 4,430€/m2. The average price in Malaga is now 3,016€/m2. That’s a 93% increase in Malaga’s property sales prices and a 39% increase in Barcelona’s property prices. Seeing that dramatic an increase, one can understand why people who live in Malaga are frustrated with the housing situation and why it tops the charts of most important local concerns.
Nonetheless, Malaga remains a much cheaper option than Barcelona. It also continues to be a beautiful, clean city with more beaches than Barcelona and a growing and vibrant cultural scene. However, both cities are wonderful places and have their specific charms and qualities.
View full article in Terra Meridiana