Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

PROPERTY

The cities in Spain where people fight most over a place to rent

The severity of Spain's rental market crisis has been laid bare in new data showing exactly where demand is highest and people are forced to compete with many others just to find a place to live.

Published: 11 April 2024 09:19 CEST
The cities in Spain where people fight most over a place to rent
The biggest city in the Canary Islands, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is among the cities where people fight most over a place to rent. Photo: Anna Vi/Unsplash

New rental data has revealed that for every home advertised in Spain, on average there are 27 parties interested in it.

This comes amid growing concern in the country about the affordability and availability of rental properties, and demonstrates the double-edged sword making life tough for renters in Spain: high demand (and thus prices) but low supply.

In several parts of the country, regional authorities are attempting to bring in rent controls in ‘stressed’ local markets. Data property portal Idealista, the average rental price in Spain rose by close to nine percent in a year (from February 2022 to February 2023), which was the highest amount in its historical record. In big cities this figure is pushing 20 percent in many places.

READ ALSO: What will happen to rents in Spain in 2024?

According to the figures with regards to demand per advert, which were cited by Spanish daily El Mundo, the demand for rental properties in Spain is a situation that is rapidly deteriorating: whereas this year every advert has 27 interest parties, in 2023 the average was 17 applicants per property in the first quarter of the year.

In cities and provincial capitals the pressure is even greater, where the number of contacts per advert can reach three times the average. However, cities with the highest demand per property advert aren’t where you might expect.

Francisco Iñareta, a spokesperson for Idealista, said in the Spanish press that the figures “show that the destruction of supply caused by rental policies worsens the possibilities of accessing housing, especially in the case of young people and vulnerable families.”

“This increases the pressure on prices, multiplies the difficulties in finding a home, and worsens the distribution that those looking for housing have to face.”

This situation essentially forces people to fight over properties to rent, he said, which “increases competition between potential tenants… [and] excludes a large part of those interested from the market.”

The cities in Spain where people fight most over a place to rent

According to the Idealista data, the rental markets in Spain’s two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, predictably receive the highest number of interested parties in absolute terms. This is due to the cities having the largest number of properties, and therefore rental adverts, in total.

For each advertisement that is published, there are 41 (Madrid) and 40 (Barcelona) interested parties, respectively.

These large markets are followed by Palma de Mallorca (38 families), Valencia (29), Malaga (28) and San Sebastian (28). Interestingly, below the national average are Bilbao (26 per advert), Seville (25) and Alicante (22).

However, looking at the figures in terms of enquiries per advert, Madrid and Barcelona fall down the rankings.

Vitoria, in the Basque Country, takes the top spot overall, with 70 interested parties per property. It is followed by Guadalajara (59), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (44), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (41) and Pamplona (41).

At the other end of the spectrum are cities like Salamanca (7 parties each advert), Ciudad Real, Ourense and Badajoz (all 8 per advert).

READ ALSO:

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

MADRID

Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid City Hall has announced it will temporarily suspend the granting of new licences for so-called tourist apartments in a bid to rein in a ballooning industry that's impacting prices and stock of long-term rents in Spain's capital.

Published: 29 April 2024 13:14 CEST
Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid authorities also announced they will not authorise the transformation of commercial properties into tourist accommodation in the centre of the city and will increase the fines for tourist properties that do not comply with regulations.

Madrid, like many other cities in Spain, has been suffering from a rise in illegal tourist accommodation with thousands swiftly popping up across the capital.

One of the main obstacles for regulators is how difficult it is to find out exactly how many there are. Madrid authorities have counted 14,699 tourist establishments in the city, 92 percent of which are for tourist accommodation. But, only 941 of these have a municipal licence, meaning the rest are illegal.

READ ALSO: Why Madrid is struggling with its explosion of illegal holiday lets

According to the Inside Airbnb platform though, there are 25,543 tourist apartments listed in the city.

In order to combat the issue,  Madrid City Hall will increase the amount of fines for owning and running one of these illegal holiday lets.

They will set the first penalty at €30,000, the second at €60,000 and the third level at €100,000. Those committing serious infringements or who keep renting out their flats without licences, even after warnings, may have to pay up to €190,000.

Current fines are only €1,000 for the first infringement. If they still don’t comply, a second fine of €2,000 is issued, and if the situation persists, a third penalty of €3,000 will be given.

The number of inspectors to check on tourist rentals will also be increased by 15 percent, up to 75.

In order to help holidaymakers know whether or not an apartment they’re interested in is legal or not, the city will also publish a list of flats with licences and their location on an official website.

“People who want to stay will know if they are in a legal or illegal accommodation and the consequences that may arise because of this” explained Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

In early 2019, former mayor Manuela Carmena approved a special Accommodation Plan to regulate tourist accommodation in the city. The new rule established among other requirements that tourist apartments should have an independent entrance from the rest of the neighbours.

According to her calculations, this would affect 95 percent of holiday lets in the city, essentially rendering them illegal. The rule was appealed by the sector, but the courts ended up agreeing with the City Council in 2021.

These rules were found to be insufficient as many holiday lets have continued to operate in the capital without a licence, and in late 2023 Martínez-Almeida promised to create new ones. 

Initial approval of the new plan is scheduled for September 2024 and final approval is expected to be in the first half of 2025. 

READ ALSO: Who really owns all the Airbnb-style lets in Spain?

The problem is not only the number of tourist rentals, but the issues they cause for residents. The Inspection and Disciplinary Service received 51 percent more complaints in 2023 than in 2022 that involved homes and apartments for tourist use: 686 compared to 454. 82 percent of which came from citizens.  

Of the total inspections carried out (4,093), it was verified that 478 homes were dedicated to tourist use and 243 were for residential use.

Not everyone is in agreement with the new plan. The Regional Federation of Neighbours of Madrid (FRAMV) believes Almeida’s plan is not enough and that the regulations should apply to the entire municipality not just the central areas.  

The spokesperson for Más Madrid in the City Council, Rita Maestre, has also spoken out against the plan. Maestre believes that the vast majority of tourist apartments already operate freely without a licence, and that the new legislation will do little to change that.

For Exceltur, Spain’s main tourism and hotelier association, there is not enough inspection capacity anywhere in Spain to be able to control that legislation is complied with.

Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez recently called on the 17 regional governments to implement restrictions on short-term holiday lets in areas where rents for locals have spiked, as the national government continues to look for ways to address the country’s housing crisis.

“Wherever there is a greater concentration of apartments for tourists, there is also pressure in the property market ,” Rodríguez said.

Even Madrid’s populist regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whose policies are usually in favour of “freedom” and liberalisation, has said that they “are studying how to regulate holiday accommodation so that higher prices do not expel neighbours”.

Average monthly rent prices in Madrid currently stand at €20.7 per square metre, after registering an increase of 18.2 percent over the last twelve months and 4.8 percent in a quarter-on-quarter rate.

“Vacation rentals are having an impact on the market, especially in the historic centres of cities,” Madrid’s general director of Housing and Rehabilitation of the Community María José Piccio-Marchetti Prado, told Business Insider Spain.

“In Madrid you see it around Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor… where there are many tourist homes”.

READ ALSO: Which cities in Spain have new restrictions on tourist rentals?

SHOW COMMENTS