BarcelonaBarcelona is the provincial capital in Spain that has experienced the greatest drop in the number of people interested in each room for rent that comes onto the market. In just one year, the number of people competing to rent a room in the Catalan capital has dropped from 31 to 22, matching the average for all of Spain. But what appears to be an indicator of reduced demand in the room rental market hides a completely different reality: the loss of traditional rental apartments.
The truth is that, according to a study by Idealista, this 38% reduction in the number of people interested in each room that comes onto the Barcelona rental market occurs in parallel with a 30% year-over-year increase in room supply and a stagnation in the highest price of 1% in the last year.
More rooms, fewer apartments
The continued slight upward price trend indicates that demand pressure remains high, so the reduction in room competition could be explained by an increase in the rental supply divided into rooms. And this has a second-round effect: the reduction of the available stock of entire apartments.
In fact, this has been happening for some time in the Catalan capital, but also in other cities in Catalonia, and throughout the rest of Spain, since renting out rooms is a way to increase the profitability of a home: the owner can extract double or even triple the income. Supply grew by 30% in Barcelona, but by 24% across Spain as a whole, making the increase in the supply of room rentals an upward trend across the country.
The growth in the number of rooms available on the market has not only distributed demand and, therefore, reduced the number of interested parties per apartment advertised, but has also slowed the rise in prices. While the average price of a room in Barcelona grew by 1%, across Spain it increased even more (+5%), reaching an average of 420 euros per month.
The incentive of the price cap
But the fact is that in the Catalan rental market there is an added incentive for this migration: since Catalonia decided to implement rental price controls in March 2024, as included in the state housing law approved the previous year, room rentals have grown, as have seasonal rentals, because these modalities have been left out of control.
However, there is another city outside Catalonia that shows a similar drop to Barcelona, with a 38% reduction in the number of interested parties: Valencia has gone from an average of 25 interested people to 18. Below the Spanish average, and also below Madrid, which stands at 20 people, more than one re-
Palma, at the top
The capital of the Balearic Islands, Palma, is by far the city where demand is outdated. In this city, which is also not subject to state price controls by decision of its regional government, up to 65 people are on average interested in each rental room advertised. However, this figure decreased by 28%. Next in the ranking is San Sebastián, with 62%.
The other Catalan capitals are also at the top of the rankings: Tarragona is the third city with the highest demand, with 46 people—after growing 48% in one year—followed by Girona, with 39, as well as Vitoria. Lleida attracts 35 people per advertisement, also well above the Spanish average of 22.
Administrators warn of "abusive practices" in room rentals
The Barcelona-Lleida Association of Property Managers (CAFBL) has expressed its concern about the abusive practices that are proliferating in the room rental market, which particularly affect younger people. According to the association, these include charging excessive prices for rooms that are not rooms, fragmenting properties to exploit them to the maximum, exceeding the number of occupants allowed according to the occupancy certificate, charging fees or increasing the rent for items that cannot be increased, or inflating services associated with room rentals, such as cleaning.
"Making renting a room more expensive inevitably means putting obstacles in the way of the personal and professional development and training of an entire generation," they lamented in a statement Thursday.