Renting is no longer a temporary phase, but a permanent one, according to a study.

BarcelonaRenters are the most affected by the housing crisis. This group is the most exposed to housing insecurity, economic hardship, and wealth inequality, compared to other tenure arrangements, such as homeowners with mortgages or those who own their homes outright. A study presented this Wednesday concludes that this problem faced by renters is not specific to any one country, nor is it solely a consequence of a lack of supply.

The other major conclusion of the report, prepared by the Barcelona Institute for Urban Research (IDRA) based on surveys in four major cities (Buenos Aires, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, and Lisbon), is that renting is no longer a temporary situation, but a permanent one. "The growth of the renter population is a global phenomenon," it concludes. While the percentage of renters in Buenos Aires has tripled since 2001, in Lisbon the number of renters grew in 2021 for the first time since the 1960s. Barcelona and Madrid have also seen a rapid increase since 2007. This growth can be explained by housing prices and the difficulty in saving enough money for a mortgage down payment. In this regard, IDRA highlights that renting is no longer a matter of age. "In all cities, the majority of the renter population is made up of adults between 30 and 64 years old," the report states, which also emphasizes the temporary nature of contracts, unlike what occurred before the 1970s. Far from being a transitory stage, renting is emerging as a permanent, unprotected tenure system that generates urban inequality,” the report states. The situation of many tenants surveyed shares several similarities: most do not expect to inherit or buy a home, between 30% and 40% of tenant households allocate more than half of their income to rent, and many do not know who their landlord is or how many properties they own, among other factors. This, according to the study, makes their situation more complicated than that of other tenure systems, which have declined proportionally compared to previous years.

The study combines probabilistic and non-probabilistic methodologies. In Barcelona, ​​Madrid, and Lisbon, quota sampling is used, a common technique when there is no tenant registry and the phenomenon is difficult to capture with random sampling. This allows for approximating social profiles and trends but does not offer a margin of statistical error. In Buenos Aires, probabilistic sampling is used, allowing for a representative inference in the metropolitan area of ​​the capital. Argentina.