Patricia Arriola Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday, April 9, 2024-02:40

For every rental home advertised in Spain, there are 27 families interested in it, and the situation has worsened in the last year:

in 2023 the average was 17 applicants

per property in the first quarter of the year, according to data provided to EL MUNDO by the Idealista real estate portal. In large cities the pressure is greater, reaching the maximum in Vitoria, where the number of contacts reaches 70.

The search for a rental home in Spain has become a complicated task: the decrease in supply, prices higher than salaries and the growth of tourist rental homes, where it is expected to receive visits from more than 85 million of international tourists, increasingly aggravate the situation.

Those harmed by this situation are the people who are looking to find stable and affordable housing. According to Similarweb,

about 9 million people visit the Idealista website every month

.

Francisco Iñareta

, spokesperson for Idealista, points out 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." Iñareta adds that there are the same or

more people looking for a house, but there are fewer and fewer properties offered

: "This increases the tension on prices, the difficulties in finding a home multiply and the distributions to which they are those looking for housing have to face.

This situation "increases

competition between potential tenants, which excludes a large part of interested parties from the market

." And he adds that this should be the focus of rental policies: "Expand the supply of housing and reduce family anxiety and prices."

Families interested in renting. Boards

High demand and low supply are reflected above all in the capitals of Spain.

The largest number of interested parties is received

in the large markets of

Madrid and Barcelona .

For every ad that is published there are 41 and 40 interested parties

, respectively. These large markets are followed by Palma (38 families), Valencia (29), Málaga (28) and San Sebastián (28). Below the national average are Bilbao (26 for each advertisement), Seville (25) and Alicante (22).

However, the record of families interested in each rental is held by

Vitoria

, due in large part to the small rental pool in the capital of Álava, which reaches

70 families interested per property

. They are followed by Guadalajara (59 families), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (44), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (41) and Pamplona (41).

On the other side are the markets of the cities of Salamanca (with only seven families interested in each advertisement), Ciudad Real, Ourense and Badajoz (eight families in each of the cities). The cities of Cáceres, Segovia and Córdoba have nine families per home. All of them grew compared to the first quarter of 2023.

The only region that

does not show growth is Soria

, one of the main areas affected by depopulation. The search for rental housing decreased by 6%.

It should be noted that in the last 12 months the housing law

has been in force

, which includes measures to increase supply at affordable prices, prevent situations of tension from occurring in the rental market, and support young people and vulnerable groups in the access to housing. Furthermore, so far, the strong

increase in demand pressure

has led to rental prices

increasing by 12.6% in the last year

, also according to data provided by Idealista.