Has the cap stopped the increase in rent in Barcelona?

BarcelonaHas the rent cap in tense areas stopped price increases? No, of course not. The latest data from the Housing Agency of Catalonia, which is based on deposits made to Incasòl, shows that in Catalonia the average rent price is already higher than before the cap came into effect, in the first quarter of 2024. In the city of Barcelona, the average price still does not exceed that of that moment, but throughout 2025 it has been rising and, if instead of the average price we look at the price per square meter, it already exceeds that of before the cap.

Furthermore, there are two more data points to consider. The total number of new rental contracts has been decreasing and the surface area of the apartments in new rentals is smaller. This latter aspect is what causes the average price not to yet exceed that of before the cap.

However, the Government defends the usefulness of the measure. As stated in a press release by the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, “rental prices have cumulatively decreased by 2.7% in Barcelona city, and have remained practically stable (+1.6%) in all municipalities declared as tense residential market areas”. According to Paneque, “in municipalities that are not included in the tense market declaration, prices have increased in the same period by 9.4%, above inflation”.

Regarding the cap, there are still "many doubts, because the regulation is riddled with legally indeterminate concepts or where various interpretations are accepted", lamented this week the director of the legal services of the Chamber of Urban Property of Barcelona, Ana Just Zuazu, in front of a packed auditorium of the College of Lawyers of Barcelona (ICAB). The VI Congress of Real Estate Law of the ICAB and the Social Housing Foundation served to discuss the most controversial points of the legislation: from caps to the consideration of large holders, through formulas for updating prices, seasonal rentals, and room rentals.

The increase in rental prices in the city of Barcelona in the last 20 years (78.39%) has practically doubled that of disposable income per capita (up to 2024, 35.83%). The evolution of housing prices is an expression of the imbalance between supply and demand. They are the spearhead of a problem that, if there is any consensus among experts, it is that it is "structural" and, therefore, requires transversal and combined solutions.

Dead ends

Firstly, the price on paper is decreasing because apartments are getting smaller. If at the beginning of 2024 the average surface area was 75 m², two years later it is 71 m². In parallel, the rent per square meter has become more expensive, going from €16.73 to €17.04. It is worth noting that the reduction in the size of homes follows the pace of demographic changes in Catalonia, where most homes are occupied by only one or two people.

Secondly, the supply of available rental housing "continues to grow, but at a much slower pace," warned Lourdes Ciuró, from the College of Property Administrators Barcelona-Lleida, during her intervention at ICAB. She assured that the market has gone from incorporating 1,000 homes monthly to less than 500. According to the College of Administrators, the number of professionals dedicated to rental commercialization is also falling: if in 2020 there were 12,000 annual registrations and deregistrations, five years later there have been 6,500. "This could indicate the withdrawal of properties from the market and a reduction in turnover," stated Ciuró.

The approval of the rent cap was only the first part of the regulation process, which was completed a year later with the regulation of room and seasonal rentals. Seasonal rentals soared by 31.34% in the third quarter of 2025, but fell by 31.34% in the last quarter of last year, coinciding with the approval of their regulation by Parliament on December 18.

More inequality

According to some experts, all this causes more inequality between tenants with higher and lower incomes. "We have an increasingly polarized society because we are managing crises terribly. There are ever greater differences within society, between those who can and those who cannot," criticized Joana Crespo, director of the study center of the College of Real Estate Agents of Barcelona (Coapi).

There are two indicators that must be read together. The College of Property Administrators Barcelona-Lleida says that more than 60% of contracts end before the legal term of five years expires, although the duration is progressively extended, and practically always (90%) it is the tenant who breaks the agreement prematurely because they believe they can find other options of better quality-price. Lourdes Ciuró, head of institutional relations at the College, assured that the percentage of income that wealthier tenants have to dedicate to paying rent has decreased from the 30-40% range to a 20-30% interval.

In parallel, the automatic renewal of contracts has skyrocketed, from 6% in 2015 to 29% ten years later. In this case, Ciuró explained that it is "people with lower incomes and therefore less attractive in a context of scarce supply, who extend the contract duration".

The conclusion is clear: "Those who can afford it leave their apartment, those who can opt for better housing at a better price. Therefore, regulation favors higher incomes." Ciuró starts from the premise that, in a context of scarcity, when choosing a tenant, landlords prioritize solvency.

The worsening of the housing crisis has caused an increase in conflicts between landlords and tenants. Chartered property administrator Rubén Llach explained that "there are increasingly more landlords who want to recover the apartment for themselves or for their families, who are not finding housing, neither to buy nor to rent". He warned that reclaiming the property from tenants "is not so easy", and that "when [landlords] discover that the tenant cannot leave because they cannot find any alternative, the solution is difficult".

Consequences in the sale and purchase

The Director General of Housing of the Generalitat, Jordi Mas, pointed to the possibility that the cap is containing the increase in sale prices, an "unexpected factor" that the Government is waiting to see "if it is confirmed". "There are starting to be symptoms that in Catalonia the regulation is working in favor of the sales market having healthier functioning", he stated. In 2025, the price of rentals in Catalonia increased by 1.96% and that of purchases by 6.4%, while in Madrid they grew by 12.9% and 16%, respectively.

Mas lamented that in Catalonia "there are more companies buying homes than young people". Those under 31 years old were only 11.35% of buyers during 2025, while corporations represented 12.12%. He placed the data on young people's acquisitions "far" from what the Generalitat would like, but "above the state average", he stressed.

From the Notarial College of Catalonia, Raquel Iglesias wanted to deny the false rumor about the impact of foreigners on the housing market. In Barcelona they are 32% of buyers and, in the whole of Catalonia, around 20%. Likewise, she highlighted that the vast majority are residents (27% and 17% of the total, respectively) and that "they are not investing in Catalonia as much as in 2013".