David Villodres I Málaga, (EFE).- Finding rental housing in Malaga at an affordable price has become a challenge for university students who want to live in the fashionable city: many sign a contract before even taking the selectivity to guarantee themselves a roof and others make work and study compatible to survive in a city from which they feel “expelled”.
Paula is 18 years old and next year she will study Translation and Interpreting in Malaga: “If she gives me the grade, of course.” Like the rest of the future university students, she has started looking for a room to live in well in advance, starting in September, but she assures that she has not found anything that she can afford.
The price of the room is not what worries Paula the most: “I’m afraid of running out of a flat, I just hear that there isn’t a place for everyone. I have to look for something as soon as possible, even though I sign the contract without knowing if I will be able to study in the city”.
Less supply and more expensive
The supply of rental homes in Malaga has been reduced by 33% in the first quarter of the year compared to the data for the same period in 2019, as certified by a study published by the Idealista real estate portal.
And it is that the biggest problem in Malaga, as several real estate managers assure EFE, is the shortage of housing: “There is a lot of demand for so little supply. The flats are rented out a day or two after they become free.”
However, from the Inmoteatinos rental agency, they assure that some apartments remain “behind” and in September or even October they are still available for rent, “although there are not many”. These are mainly flats in improvable conditions or overpriced.
A widespread problem
In the Teatinos district, preferred by students due to its young atmosphere and its proximity to the main university campus, three-bedroom apartments cost around 1,200 or 1,300 euros, while four-bedroom apartments cost more than 1,400.
The price per square meter for rent in the district is at all-time highs, after increasing by 14% in just one year, and already exceeds 11 euros, according to the Idealista portal.
“We can’t afford that outrageous amount,” says Paula, who, with two friends, is looking for a three-bedroom apartment to live in while she studies. “It is impossible to pay 400 euros for a room that is not always in the best conditions”, she points out.
Antonio, also a student who pays 340 euros for his room in Teatinos, wants to go to other less stressed areas of Malaga, although for now he has found nothing.
“I thought that far from Teatinos the prices would be more contained, but that is not the case. I’ve been looking for a month and so far I can’t find anything that convinces me, ”she explains.
The cheapest room that can be found on the Fotocasa portal in Malaga is around 300 euros, although it is labeled ‘girls only’. “That’s another one,” Antonio says angrily, “the landlords prefer only girls to rent the rooms and I don’t understand it.”
desperate students
“People are desperate. They have come to offer me more than what I ask for a room”, assures EFE Nabil, owner of a three-bedroom house on Carlos Haya avenue, an area well connected to the center, which he rents for an unheard of price in the city. : 750 euro.
“I didn’t know how the situation was until I put the ad on Idealista and received more than twenty calls in one hour,” Nabil says.
Raúl, a scientific student at the University of Malaga (UMA), assures that he agreed on a price for a rental apartment, but when it was time to sign the landlord raised it by 40 euros “because he said it was too cheap for the zone”.
Raúl had to accept because “he had no other choice”: “It was either that or I was left without a room.”
work to survive
The high price of rents in Malaga forces many young people to look for a part-time job in order to pay part of the expenses of living alone in the city.
This is the case of Jesús, who studies a master’s degree in film directing from Monday to Friday and works on Saturdays and Sundays in a bar in Fuengirola: “It’s the only way I have to support myself in Malaga.”
Employment, however, takes study time away from university students, who often complain that they lack hours to study and that it is more difficult for them to face the course.
Many young people still do not understand how it is possible that no one has taken to the streets to demonstrate for prices that they consider “abusive and indecent.” “Rent is a bubble that will end up exploding,” warns Jesús. EFE