Barcelona, the city of express rentals: one in ten listings lasts less than 24 hours.
The Catalan capital is the largest metropolis in the state where rental offers are published for the shortest period of time.
BarcelonaThe tight rental market, which is making it increasingly difficult to access affordable housing, means that in municipalities with the highest demand, many apartments are not even advertised on real estate portals, encouraging early bookings. And those that do appear are quickly taken down. The city of Barcelona is a paradigmatic case: 12% of all rental listings on Idealista are taken down in less than 24 hours. The Catalan capital is the major city in Spain most affected by express rentals, listings that last less than a day.
The rest of the country's major cities are behind Barcelona, followed by San Sebastián and Palma, which account for 9% of express listings, Alicante (8%), Málaga (7%), and especially Madrid (6%). The Catalan capital not only has double the percentage of the Spanish capital, but also has districts where 2 out of 10 listings last less than 24 hours, such as Sant Andreu and Horta Guinardó. Indeed, these are among the most affordable districts for rent.
Behind them are Sant Martí (15%), Gràcia, and Sants-Montjuïc (both with 14%), also showing notable figures, but below the 20% threshold. Closer to 10% are central districts such as Eixample and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (11%), and Les Corts (10%).
Alerts received by up to 3,000 people
"The city most affected by express rentals is Barcelona, where the limits and controls for areas with a tense residential market established by the Housing Law are applied, and where all districts exceed a rate of 10% of listings that are closed within 24 hours, with the exception of Ciutat Vella, which remains at 6%. In fact, demand is so high that some agencies that, when they post affordable listings on real estate portals, know that the number of people who will receive an alert for that listing is between 2,000 and 3,000.
This tension in the Barcelona rental market is explained by several reasons: the first is the imbalance between the supply of rental apartments—understood as the homes advertised under this regime—which is increasingly decreasing, and skyrocketing demand. Likewise, part of the traditional rental market has shifted to other options, such as seasonal rentals or room rentals, the two options left unregulated by the state housing law and, therefore, without having to comply with the rent control in force since March 2024. Although the rental market (the number of apartments with a lease) has gained stability, the lower turnover of rental apartments makes it very difficult to find an apartment and, therefore, the listings last so little.
