Half of Murcia homes still face winter without heating

Idealista study reveals big regional gaps as Spain’s climate becomes less predictable

Almost half of all homes in the Region of Murcia have no heating at all, despite increasingly unpredictable winters and the fading of the old, mild “in-between” seasons. According to a new Idealista study based on listings for homes for sale and rent in November 2025, 50% of properties in the region lack any kind of heating system, while in the city of Murcia that figure drops to 37%.

Nationally, one in four homes in Spain has no heating, a reality that sits awkwardly alongside growing concern about climate change and more frequent cold snaps. Areas that have traditionally enjoyed softer temperatures are where heating is least common, especially in the Spanish south and islands.

The Canary Islands stand out most clearly. In the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 89% of homes are advertised without heating, and in Las Palmas the percentage is 86%. Cádiz and Huelva follow, both with 54% of homes lacking heating, then come Murcia and Almería, each on 50%.

Further north and inland, the picture flips completely. In Soria, Salamanca and Navarre, only 4% of homes are listed without central heating. In Segovia, Valladolid and La Rioja, that share nudges up only slightly to 5%, showing how standard heating has become in colder provinces.

The same pattern holds when you look just at provincial capitals. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria again comes out on top for homes without heating, with 88% of properties lacking a system, followed by Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 86%. More than half of the homes in Ceuta and Cádiz have no heating (64% in each case), while in Huelva the figure is 52%. Almería sits at 48%, and both Melilla and Castellón de la Plana are on 41%.

Even in big cities there are differences. In Barcelona, 17% of homes do not have heating, whereas in Madrid that falls sharply to 5%. At the other end of the scale, Pamplona, Soria and Salamanca lead as the cities best equipped for the cold, with only 2% of homes without heating. They are followed by Ciudad Real and Oviedo on 3%, and by Logroño, Burgos, Segovia, Ávila and Valladolid, where just 4% of homes are advertised without a heating system.

Image: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels