Maria Jesus Ezquerro |
Barcelona (EFE).- The rental of rooms is becoming the new star market, with a demand that shoots up to 40% in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, given the difficulty of young people to access an entire apartment and buy a house, and the attractiveness that it has for many foreigners.
According to data from the platform Spothome specialized in medium and long-term rentals, the demand for this housing product has been growing non-stop since the third quarter of 2022 and has already recovered the level it had in 2019, before the pandemic.
The coronavirus emptied the student residences and the apartments occupied by foreign professionals, groups that have returned and have found that many small owners have opted for this market so as not to be affected by the restrictions of the conventional rental market, especially in Catalonia.
Students dominate the demand for rooms
The economics professor and director of the real estate master’s degree at the University of Barcelona (UB), Gonzalo Bernardos, pointed out, in an interview with EFE, that “Barcelona is the Spanish city where there is the greatest demand for room rentals.”
80% of the demand in Barcelona and 70% in Madrid comes from master’s, degree and postgraduate students. This has meant that in the last five years the student residences in the Catalan capital have almost tripled.
“Although the offer has grown with residences and small owners opting for this formula because it gives more performance than conventional rentals and gives them more security against possible occupations, the demand is still greater,” Bernardos assured.
As a consequence of this demand and the high price of conventional rentals, room prices rise: “Owners see that the limitations for renting a home can be bypassed and they can, for example, go from charging 1,800 euros per month for a 110 m2 apartment in the Eixample (Barcelona) to win 2,800 if they rent the 4 rooms separately ”, he has detailed.
According to data from this real estate expert, 20% of the rental housing stock in Barcelona (not counting tourism) is already being dedicated to the housing market.
Spothome confirms that the users of these rooms in Barcelona, Madrid or Valencia are young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who are taking postgraduate courses or have a job offer in the city. Many are foreigners and have a purchasing power higher than the average for their age in Spain.
“Barcelona and Madrid receive a lot of international demand from young students or professionals who are attracted by companies established here. The rise in rental prices for entire homes together with the drop in supply is putting pressure on room rentals,” the director of Spothome’s Spain portfolio, Álvaro Marín, explained to EFE.
The spokesperson for the real estate platform assures that many apartment owners decide to rent rooms “because it offers more income stability than an entire apartment, since it is increasingly difficult to find a family that pays the high prices.”
According to data from the UB professor, conventional rentals with a price equal to or less than 700 euros now only account for 0.3%, 0.6%, 1.8%, 2.4% and 7.5% of the offer from Barcelona, Palma, Madrid, Valencia and Malaga, respectively.
Renting a room in Barcelona costs 600 euros
Regarding the price of renting a room, Spothome points out that in Barcelona it is 603 euros/month -usually including utility bills-, an amount that is the highest in Spain, while in Madrid it is 558 euros and in Palma de Mallorca reaches 516 euros.
In addition to Barcelona and Madrid, the demand for rooms to rent is also growing in Valencia.
The platform ensures that renting a room in shared apartments, in which the bathroom is shared with another person, is 60% cheaper than opting for an entire apartment.
The shortage of complete rental housing also greatly conditions the supply available in the center of cities, Bernardos stressed, who concludes that “there is no rental housing” and what is available is “extremely expensive” in Barcelona and Madrid.
“Even in the outskirts the offer is small. In Móstoles or Leganés they are asking for 800 and 850 euros per month. The only market that people can go to in these circumstances is that of rental rooms, ”he says.
