Raising rents with the accumulated CPI, the gap to avoid the price cap
Several affected people explain to ARA how they wanted to increase their price up to 200 euros per month.
BarcelonaSince March of last year, the price cap has prohibited rent increases in areas under pressure, with some exceptions, such as renovations or contracts of up to 10 years. This regulation has lowered the average price of new rental contracts, but it has also triggered trickery to evade control: since then, seasonal rentals have skyrocketed by 62% in Barcelona, for example. Although removing the apartment from the regulated market, through temporary and room rentals, has been the most common way to circumvent price controls, many owners and real estate agencies have found another way to achieve the same goal: to avoid price controls.
A few months ago, we explained that one of these loopholes was to start pass on to the tenant a portion of the IBI (property tax), since the state housing law does not prevent the tax from being passed on to the tenant if it is written and quantified in the new contract. But this hasn't been the only way to increase the price of regulated rents: many landlords have found a new way to circumvent the ceiling limits in the annual update of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Instead of adding inflation to the rent price of the previous year, they have opted to apply the accumulated CPI from years prior—even in cases prior to 2000—to the value of the contract at that time.
A "very" common scam.
"Although the law states that the previous rent, updated with the CPI, cannot be exceeded, what is done is interpret the law to establish that the updated rent is the initial rent and not the last one the tenant was paying. In this case, if the contract is 20 years old, they update the CPI for the last 20 years, and the resulting rental price, we would take the last payable rent," Alejandro Fuentes-Lojo, a real estate expert, explains to ARA. He considers this practice illegal. "Many cases have been filed in recent months, but since Decree Law 1/2025, the number has decreased because landlords face fines of 30% to 30% of €90,900,000 if they exceed that 30%," Fuentes-Lojo adds.
This gap between applying one year's CPI to the last rent and passing on the accumulated CPI from the first contract is explained by two different reasons that can be applied for two years that the past cannot be applied to the fact that the owner has not applied two different reasons that can be complemented: one is that the owner cannot apply it circumstantially, and the other is a structural issue: given that inflation soared in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine, the Spanish government limited the CPI update to 2% in 2022 and 2023, and 3% in 2024. As of January 2025 housing (IRAH).
"We understand that we should not apply the current or last CPI applied to the current contract, but the total indicated by the INE according to the percentage indicated on the website," says a Barcelona resident. In 2020, he started paying 825 euros per month, and now, since the last CPI update in July of last year, the fee has risen to 909 euros. 2020 in November 2024.
Inflation and Property Tax, the whole combo
Maria, 67, a resident of a town in the Vallès region considered a high-stress area, is currently in the same situation: the real estate agency has recalculated the CPI (Price Index) since 1988, when she signed her current contract. It had been automatically renewed, and without much discussion with the owner, a friend of hers. But one day the property changed, and now the new agency is asking for more money. "They're telling me that the regularization must take place from 1988 to 2024, and they tell me they've checked with the INE (National Institute of Statistics) and that according to the rent from the 1988 contract, which is €133, she now has to pay €390 plus the IBI (Property Tax) and the increase from 2024 to 2025." All of this means that the monthly payment amounts to €426, when she should be paying €390 (excluding the IBI).
The case of Carles, also a resident of Vallès, is very similar to that of Maria: a change of ownership resulted in a change of intermediary, who from one day to the next was asking for 200 euros more each month. "Their argument is that the contract has expired, when in reality it could continue to be renewed. They want to give me a new contract and add the accumulated CPI since 1994, which amounts to 204 euros more per month. This represents an increase of 40%," Carles explains in statements to ARA.
What can the tenant do?
Given this, Fuentes-Lojo recommends that tenants, who are often forced to sign to avoid losing their apartment, go ahead with the signing because signing a contract with a higher rent than the required rent does not mean losing the right to demand the legal rent.
"You should sign and notify the owner that the rent due is one and that the rent being requested is above the limit, and pay the required rent because this avoids the risk of eviction," he says. If the owner does not accept payment, you must have it recorded in a notary or court order to prove that you have offered it.