Are you paying more rent per square metre in a small apartment? Rental per m² per size in 11 countries (October 2026)
Machine-assisted English version of the Spanish original by Aptología. All figures are locked to the original (numbers are copied, not re-translated); if in doubt, the Spanish original prevails.
In Paraguay the rent per m² of an apartment of 120 m² or more is 52.4% lower than that of one of less than 50 m², the largest difference of 11 countries; in Colombia, - 1.2%. In 9 of 11 countries the tenant of a small apartment pays more for each square meter.
Abstract: We compare the rent per m² of 107,528 apartments for rent in five sections of area, within each country and in its currency.
Updated: 18 October 2026 (data from 18 October 2026) · Next update: monthly.
Summary
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Paraguay | -52.4% |
| Bolivia | -46.5% |
| Peru | -42.1% |
| Portugal | -41.6% |
| Uruguay | -39.1% |
| Mexico | -38.8% |
| Argentina | -31.1% |
| Ecuador | -30.0% |
| Colombia | -1.2% |
| Brazil | +4.5% |
| Chile | +7.4% |
Rental per m² in front of the section of less than 50 m²
| Country | 50 to 69 m² vs. < 50 m² | 70 to 89 m² vs. < 50 m² | 90 to 119 m² vs. < 50 m² | 120 m² or more vs. < 50 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paraguay | -18.9% | -22.3% | -30.6% | -52.4% |
| Bolivia | -19.8% | -24.5% | -35.7% | -46.5% |
| Peru | -25.1% | -39.1% | -42.2% | -42.1% |
| Portugal | -22.8% | -36.0% | -35.4% | -41.6% |
| Uruguay | -17.0% | -26.0% | -32.5% | -39.1% |
| Mexico | -25.0% | -31.4% | -34.7% | -38.8% |
| Argentina | -7.7% | -12.1% | -18.6% | -31.1% |
| Ecuador | -7.9% | -6.1% | -12.2% | -30.0% |
| Colombia | -14.5% | -3.2% | -0.9% | -1.2% |
| Brazil | -15.5% | +0.3% | +7.6% | +4.5% |
| Chile | -14.3% | -10.5% | +16.6% | +7.4% |
Percentage difference of the median rent per m² of each tranche compared to that of less than 50 m² in the country's majority currency (unconverted).
Frequently asked questions
Is the rent per m² of a small apartment more expensive? Yes in 9 of 11 countries: the m² of the large apartments is rented cheaper.
And in Colombia? An apartment of 120 m² or more is rented - 1.2% per m² compared to one of less than 50 m².
Methodology
- Source: night events of the Aptology database (aptologia.com) of 18 October 2026: current housing ads in real estate portals of 13 countries, collected by Aptology and seen online between 11 and 18 October 2026. Court: 18 October of 2026.
- Debugging: exact duplicates (same city, area, type, price, currency, area, rooms and bathrooms) and prices outside the percentile 1 - 99 of each country, operation, currency and type are removed; the price per m² uses only ads with declared area between 12 and 2,000 m² and is also cut to P1-P99.
- What is measured: prices ordered (published), not closing prices. For rent, monthly rent without HOA fee, common expenses or condo.
- Minimum sample: each published figure is based on at least 30 ads; cells with less are omitted.
- Coins: each country is analysed in its majority currency of rent; the comparison is in percentage within each country, without converting or mixing coins.
- Limitations: The coverage depends on the portals that travel Aptology in each country and is greater in large cities and in the medium-high and high segments; the area is the one that declares the announcement, unverified; the area names come from the portals.
- Privacy: only aggregates are published; no personal data, link to ads or name of advertiser is published.
- Open data: datos.csv, CC BY license 4. 0.
How to quote
Pinzón Pineda, D. M. (2026). Are you paying more rent per square metre in a small apartment? Rental per m² per size in 11 countries (October 2026). Aptology (aptologia.com). https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/alquiler-por-m²-segun-tamano-del-apartamento-latinoamerica-2026. Data: datos.csv, CC BY license 4. 0.
Sources and data
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23475812 (Zenodo)
- Original study (Spanish): ¿Se paga más arriendo por metro cuadrado en un apartamento pequeño? Canon por m² según el tamaño en 11 países (octubre 2026)
- GitHub (CSV, PDF): https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/arriendo-por-m2-segun-tamano-del-apartamento-latinoamerica-2026
- Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/datasets/aptologia/arriendo-por-m2-segun-tamano-del-apartamento-latinoamerica-2026