A Spanish estate agent has caused outrage online and among renters by charging €10 simply to view a rental property.
For many this is further evidence of the worsening rental situation in Spain and comes as the market has grown increasingly saturated in the post-pandemic period, with average prices in Spanish cities skyrocketing in recent years.
A Real Estate Index from property website Fotocasa recently found that rents in Spain have almost doubled on average in just 10 years. In several cities the price increase has been over 100 percent.
READ ALSO: When’s the best time of the year to start renting in Spain?
Unsurprisingly much of the criticism has been directed towards landlords but now it seems Spanish estate agents are also trying to cash in.
The pay-to-view advert was first posted on popular Spanish property portal Idealista for a 65m2 attic flat in the town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet in Catalonia, close to Badalona.
The offer had all the usual information that rental adverts do (price, pictures, location, transport connections, which floor it was on) but Grup Capital estate agents also included a line stating that each viewing would cost €9.90.
Owing to the outrage it generated online, the advert has since been taken down but social media users managed to grab screenshots of the offer clearly stating se cobra la visita 9.90€ (€9.90 charged per visit). One post highlighting the tactic has been viewed over 333,000 times.
9,90€ la visita.
Hui han anunciat que només hi ha menys de cent!!!!(100) pisos en lloguer per menys de 1200€/mes, dels quals només un terç són de lloguer normal (altres dos terços són de lloguer turístic/temporal).No teniu vergonya ni la coneixeu, 9,90€ la puta visita pic.twitter.com/oT2RRHDlw0
— Gina Modotti (@hernameisgina) August 25, 2024
Twitter/X users didn’t hold back in their criticism of the advert, with one user stating that “I hope no one falls for this scam.”
“It’s like being charged entry to go and buy bread,” joked one. “This is disgusting and surely illegal,” added another.
The legality of pay-to-view adverts is unclear. A provincial court in the southern city of Cádiz ruled recently that estate agents cannot charge for viewings for potential property sales, but there does not appear to be a clear national ruling on the issue or anything specific on rental properties yet.
Spain’s Housing Law reforms tried to pass fees and administrative costs onto landlords, but landlords and estate agents alike have both exploited legal loopholes to try and get around these costs.
One notable way landlords have done this is to find ways to get around rental price caps outlined in the government’s flagship housing legislation.
Spain’s Housing Law, which was passed back in 2023, was a wide-ranging bill that not only shifted agency fees onto landlords, created price indexes and established ‘stressed’ rental zones, but also ‘capped’ annual rent increases. Critics argue the law has made the rental market worse despite being designed with tenants in mind.
For many renters spending more and more of their monthly salary on rent, the viewing fees controversy speaks not only to the worsening market but the ineffectiveness of government legislation in doing anything about it.
Despite the outrage and questionable legality of charging for flat viewings, it’s nothing new in Spain. In October 2023 Spanish daily El Diario reported that prospective renters were also being charged viewing fees to see properties in Madrid.
READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?
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