According to a recent study carried out by Spain’s National Federation of Real Estate Associations (FAI), over half of all rental properties in Spain now require more than one salary to pay the monthly rent.
The average monthly rent for a flat has now broken the €1,000 per month barrier in eight cities in Spain. In the countries’ two major cities Madrid (€1,522) and Barcelona (€1,699) average rents are skyrocketing.
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San Sebastián (€1,353) and Palma de Mallorca (€1,307) are among the next most expensive cities in Spain, followed by Málaga (€1,115) and Valencia and Bilbao where average rents are also above €1,100.
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Alarmingly, the data shows that rising rents increasingly mean that people in Spain are forced into flat shares. Data collected by FAI shows that only 17.3 percent of those who signed rental contracts in the last year did so to rent a home on their own.
80.8 percent of new tenants were found to be couples or people sharing flats, with 1.8 percent of new rental contracts being taken out by companies.
Those who can afford to rent a flat alone generally have a much higher income levels than other tenants.
According to the FAI study, the average income of a person renting a flat alone is €1,782 per month, compared to €2,091 for the average income of all members of a shared or rented flat combined. In this sense, living alone has all but become a luxury in Spain’s big cities.
President of FAI, José María Alfaro, said in a statement that tenants in Spain now spend on average between 45-56 percent of their salary on rent every month. He feels if it doesn’t change the entire rental market could be in danger.
“We are doomed to situations of substandard housing, to a high risk of a potential default bubble if the economy cools down, and to renting becoming a luxury if effective measures are not taken,” Alfaro said.
The FAI report also released new figures on supply and demand in the rental market, and the results are stark.
At the national level, supply fell by 37.2 percent from June 2023 to June 2024, while demand grew during the same period by 20.23 percent.
“We are facing the most serious housing crisis in the last 50 years, since, in one year, more than a third of the supply of flats or houses for permanent rent has disappeared and there’s an upward trend in the demand for long-stay housing rarely seen before,” Alfaro said.
Among possible solutions, he suggested introducing incentives to bring empty homes into the market and recover those that have been transferred into the tourist rental sector.
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Anger over rising rental costs have formed part of the growing anti-tourism movement in Spain. Many feel that an increase in short-term tourist rental accommodation has contributed to inflating the rental market by reducing housing stock.
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