'Best home-working cities': Where Spain ranks, and why

THREE cities in Spain have made it into the latest list of the best for home-workers after the 80 most popular choices were revealed.

WorkMotion, a platform focusing on helping the global public find overseas employment, researched factors ranging from cost of living – including housing – level of taxes, general 'happiness' ratings of inhabitants, and the ease or otherwise of obtaining a work-from-home visa for those who, in the case of non-European Union citizens, or EU nationals moving outside the bloc, might need one.

Criteria were based upon objective analyses of each city's factors, rather than surveying workers to find out where they would prefer to live – a study that may well have produced different results.

In the top 10, only four were in Europe – the Czech capital of Prague at number five, the Estonian capital of Tallinn at number seven, Zagreb in Croatia at eight and Dublin, Republic of Ireland, at number 10.

Clearly, if mild winters and hot summers were among the requisites, Zagreb would be the only European city in the top 10 to make the cut, meaning locations in Spain may have found their way into this list.

But two Spanish metropolitan areas made the top 20, out of three which got into the best 25.

Melbourne, in the far south-east of Australia, which advertises its title of 'world's most liveable city', tops the list, and two hours north by air along the coast, Sydney comes third.

Second is Montréal, the capital of the French-speaking Canadian province of Québéc, and Wellington, New Zealand, is fourth.

Another Canadian city slots in sixth, Toronto, with Singapore ninth.

How Spanish cities compare with the other 77 'best'

Madrid comes in at 15 out of the 80, after Berlin, Germany; Glasgow, UK; Tokyo, Japan and Lisbon, Portugal, in that order, then Barcelona sits at number 17, separated from Madrid by Vancouver, Canada, at 16.

Spain's two largest cities beat Helsinki (Finland), Aberdeen (UK), and Hamburg (Germany), which complete the top 20.

Gran Canaria's largest city, Las Palmas – one of the Canary Islands' two provincial capitals along with Santa Cruz de Tenerife – is at 21, beating Warsaw (Poland), Vienna (Austria), Nantes (France), and Edinburgh (UK) to round off the top 25.

Melbourne is the only city scoring the full 100, and the top five all achieve upwards of 95.

With the bottom entry, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) earning 50 and, in descending order, Medellín (Colombia), Bangalore (India), Méjico DF (México) and Honolulu (Hawaii, USA) gaining below 60, all the top 25 scored at least 80 out of 100.

Madrid earned 83.22, Barcelona 82.12 and Las Palmas 81.06.

All three scored 72.4 for 'legal requirements', above Prague and Tallinn, and 75.6 for 'ease of compliance', beating Zagreb, Prague, Glasgow and Lisbon.

Las Palmas gained 87.62 for 'city affordability', whilst Madrid gained 78.92 and Barcelona 78.73.

All three got 79.7 for 'political stability' and 88.51 (Madrid), 88.41 (Barcelona) and 88.31 (Las Palmas) for 'safety and security'.

Distinctions in equality, healthcare, education, cultural attractions

For 'minority equality', the three Spanish cities earned 97.84 out of 100, and for LGB (lesbian, bisexual and gay) as well as transsexual equality, shot up several places in the ranking: Barcelona comes in sixth out of 80, at 99.34; Madrid is seventh at 99.31, both beating London (eighth, with 99.27), and Las Palmas 11th, at 98.94.

'Gender equality' is high-scoring across all the developed nations, with the three Spanish locations earning 98.99.

For 'quality in education', Oslo tops the list at 100 and Helsinki second with 99.4, whilst Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Las Palmas, Melbourne and Sydney are very close: The UK cities score 84.77, those in Spain got 83.69, and the two Australian locations 83.61.

Spain also ranked highly for 'access to healthcare', with Madrid gaining 96, Barcelona 95.83 and Las Palmas 95.11.

The Danish capital of Copenhagen was the only city to earn the full 100 for 'happiness', where Barcelona got 84.29, Las Palmas 84.86 and Madrid, 85.2.

London was top, with 100, for 'cultural attractions', followed by Tokyo, Melbourne, San Francisco (California, USA), Paris (France), New York and Berlin, with Madrid rising to eighth, earning 85.32, Barcelona at 16th with 81.68 and Las Palmas falling down to 65, at 59.62.

That said, with winters that practically never drop below 13ºC, a huge pre-Lent carnival, fiestas all summer and pavement cafés and beaches galore, it is highly unlikely anyone working in Las Palmas or the wider island of Gran Canaria would get bored in a hurry.

Near-perfect for mobility; highly commended for housing

Madrid and Barcelona came 14th and 15th for mobility, with 91.58 and 91.52 – probably because of their fast, clean, regular, cheap and reliable metro networks which cover almost every corner of their city centres and a high percentage of suburban and satellite town locations; Las Palmas, though, rose to number five with 93.71, only beaten by Bali, Indonesia, the only destination scoring 100; Aberdeen, Chiang Mai (Thailand) and Zagreb, in descending order.

It would be difficult for any western European city to rank highly for housing affordability when up against Bali, Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Istanbul (Turkey), Medellín, São Paulo (Brazil), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ukraine), Zagreb, and Warsaw, which made up the top 10; Las Palmas, though, came 17th, with a score of 88.47, beaten by, in descending order, Chiang Mai, Bari (Italy), Prague, Aberdeen, Tallinn, and Toulouse (France).

Madrid is 34th out of the top 80, scoring a healthy 81.61, and Barcelona is 32nd, with 82.94, despite being two of the most expensive locations in Spain for renting or buying homes – out in the provinces and even in popular, built-up coastal hotspots, prices are typically much lower.

San Francisco was the most expensive for housing, followed by New York, Hong King, Singapore, Los Angeles and, the two most expensive in Europe, Paris (at number 75, with 62.7) and London (at 74, with 64.13 out of 100).

Access to housing also pushed Spanish cities closer to the number one slot – this was held by Bari, the only city scoring 100, followed by Zagreb, Bologna (Italy),Warsaw, Rome (Italy), Prague, Edinburgh and Glasgow, with Madrid at number nine (88.59 out of 100), Barcelona 10th (87.67), but Las Palmas fell to number 36 with 74.77 points, showing that availability of reasonably-priced rent in the Canary Island metropolis is a gap in the market waiting to be filled.

Brussels was bottom for taxation levels, and Istanbul came out the best – the only location scoring 100 – and this was the only area where Spain's cities did not perform well, with Barcelona at number 63 (scoring 59.8), Las Palmas at 67 (58.96) and Madrid at 69 (57.27).

Worse than Madrid for taxes were Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich (Germany), all scoring 56.73; Bari, Dublin, Bologna, Copenhagen, Warsaw, and second only to Brussels, Gothenburg (Sweden), with 53.5.