Renting an apartment is still hell (as is buying it, no doubt). Everyone knows it, and it's a prophecy, as the poet would say. Attempts to rein in prices are starting to work, but only halfway. And with dysfunctions. It's more than likely that without price caps and tense zones, things would be worse. But the improvement is slight and presents contradictions. Today we're explaining one that has gone unnoticed until now, because it's not obvious, and that shows the complexity of the situation when it comes to prices actually falling, or at least not rising.
Because while there has apparently been a drop in the price of new contracts, this has, in turn, led to a decrease in rented space. In other words: prices have dropped, yes, but so has the surface area of apartments. So the square meter has risen again in the last six months. It's a phenomenon similar to the so-called downsizing or reduflation, which is when for the same price they give you less of a product, something that is masked by the packagingIn the case of apartments, of course, it's not exactly the same, but the end result is similar: for the same price, you get less space and less product.
Therefore, in practice, although the statistics indicate a drop in contract prices, the same cannot be said when looking at them in terms of square meters. The data in question is from Incasol and, in this case, refers only to the city of Barcelona (currently, none are available for the whole of Catalonia). Since the cap came into effect, the average surface area of new regulated rental contracts in Barcelona has been decreasing, falling from 75 m2 from then to 71 m2 current. This is the lowest level in the last eight years and the second lowest figure since records began. Furthermore, this reduction in surface area is 5% in one year, the most notable in the historical series.
There is no district in Barcelona where the price per square meter of the rental market has fallen in the first quarter of 2025: it remains stable in Gràcia, rises slightly in Eixample, Horta-Guinardó and Nou Barris and soars in Sant Andreu (+5.79%) and in Ciutat Vella (+8.8). In fact, precisely in this last district, in the first quarter of 2025 the average surface area of new rental contracts fell drastically: while in the fourth quarter of 2024 it was 68 m2, is now 62 m2.
Explanations? Either tenants with large apartments rent less, or owners take spacious apartments off the regulated market to make them more profitable elsewhere, either through seasonal or room-based rentals, or even by selling them. In fact, it's known that seasonal rentals have clearly interfered with the market, as have room-based rentals. So, in practice, residents of urban areas—especially in Barcelona and its surrounding areas, but not only—know how difficult it is to find a decent place to live at a decent price. Now, if they find one to rent, on average it's somewhat smaller. The tourism boom and the attractiveness of investors continue to set the tone for a market with much more demand than supply.
