Apartments for rent in Girona: a glimpse of what it is like

GironaThe rental housing market in Girona is insufficient to meet demand. This is the case in the metropolitan area and generally throughout the district. According to the property portal Idealista, Girona is the second capital of the State, after Vitoria, where a flat is rented most quickly: 29% of those offered are not even on the market for 24 hours. And many flats are not even advertised. "When we have a vacant flat, it is practically not advertised because most of the time the tenant who leaves is already brought by a friend or acquaintance who is looking for a flat to rent, so we already have it committed," explains Joan Company, president of the Girona Association of Real Estate Agents and director of Ceigrup Finques Company.

Company cites data from Incasòl to objectify this lack: at the end of the third quarter of last year – the fourth is not yet closed – 1,300 fewer rental contracts had been signed than the previous year in the entire district. "If you look at the city of Girona on Idealista, there are twelve or thirteen apartments for less than 1,000 euros a month and four or five for less than 700 euros, and of these, some still say they only want to rent for the season. This is very little for a city like Girona," he adds.

"What we complain about is that the problem is getting worse and worse and the policies of the administrations in recent years are not working. We are not doing well," he adds. Company believes that "the administration must assume its role and provide the most disadvantaged families with decent housing. I am talking about families who cannot pay rent at market prices."

Public-private collaboration

Just as there is public-private collaboration in other areas, Company believes that it should be extended to the real estate market. "There are many private hospitals that have a collaboration agreement with the administration. The administration pays them to provide a public service, and the same with education. Well, with housing, which is a basic necessity, something similar should be done. Agreements should be reached with the private sector, with compensation and aid for everyone." Company adds that "compensation can take many forms. For example, when you want to make reforms you have fiscal subsidies. Everything has already been invented, we have to look for where measures that are working are being applied and apply them here."

The president of the real estate agents also believes that "administrations should reach agreements with developers who are willing to build on public land. There must be much more cooperation, coordination and collaboration with the private sector and unfortunately this is not the case."

"The administration must put all the tools in place to encourage the construction of flats, because they are lacking. There is little construction and the little that is being built is not being used for rent. Since the bursting of the real estate bubble until now, the level of construction that has taken place is so much that we need, if not demographically, demographically, a home immediately," says Francesc Quintana, president of the Girona College of Property Managers.

Insecurity of the owners

Quintana adds that the administration "must make small owners cooperate and put their empty apartments on the rental market" but also points out that "there is less and less supply, partly due to legal uncertainty, which makes some owners withdraw from the market because they are somewhat afraid of putting the apartment up for rent, in certain cases." "With the entry into force of the new housing law and everything that it meant, obviously the owners were put on alert a little. The occupations, the non-payments, which sometimes also occur and not being able to evict tenants with a certain agility generates this insecurity," adds Quintana.

"The owners are desperate with the issue of occupations and also of the concerns, the typical tenant who fails to comply from the very first minute. He signs the contract, pays the deposit, doesn't even pay the first monthly payment and that's it," says Carles Balbín, a lawyer specialising in real estate matters and legal advisor to the Association of Real Estate Agents. In this regard, Balbín adds: "We'll see if we improve with the new criteria published a few weeks ago by the Girona Court. Until now, local police and the Mossos did not act because they were afraid. But it is not necessary to change the laws, they are already sufficiently protective, it is necessary to apply them with common sense."

Tenants on demand

"A serious problem is that we cannot leave the flats empty. As soon as they see the slightest movement to remove furniture, the squatters are there and occupy them. When a tenant leaves, they have to come in immediately or put an alarm on. Or the owner has to sleep in the flat. It doesn't matter if it's in Salt, Gerona, Cassà de la Selva. Of course, it's the least conflictive part, but I'm speaking in general terms," says Manel Sánchez, director of Inmogest, an agency in Salt that works with properties throughout the Gironès.

"In Salt, the tenants themselves look for the next tenants and they come to an agreement with the owners. The flats don't even get to rent out. And quite often I find owners who only want to rent to French people who go to study at the physiotherapy school [in] Salt properties.

"Students are also having a lot of trouble finding an apartment, which was not the case until a few years ago. In Girona city, this is very common and they have difficulty finding rental apartments because the demand is huge," says Company, adding that "many owners opt for shorter rentals, not only to see if they can get more or less profit, but above all because they are not committed to five years." In this sense, "if they are students or visitors who need it for a certain period of time, it is a way of not having to commit themselves."

Rental prices set by law

"Right now I don't even want to have rental apartments because all properties must be rented at the reference price set by the State. An apartment that was rented for €800 or €900, the State tells you that you have to rent it for €600 and the owner says that for this price he doesn't want to rent it," says Sánchez. On January 30, the Generalitat approved a sanctioning regime with fines ranging from €90,000 to €900,000 for anyone who fails to comply with the limit.

"The Generalitat had told us that in Barcelona they had detected many, many flats that had gone from the regular and permanent housing contract to the seasonal contract and therefore they were contracts made fraudulently. What consequences did they have before? None. And now? Very heavy fines, and therefore it is assumed that there will no longer be this abuse," says Balbí.

"What happens now? We no longer understand each other with the owners. As we do not want to do things badly and the owners do not want to rent at the price that the state tells them, in the end we cannot work and that is why we will reduce the rental department to the maximum. This is a problem that will be seen shortly because the sanctioning regime has been approved.

"As an administrator, it has come to me that sometimes there are owners who want to charge more than what is required, according to the price cap that there is by law. Flats that are put up for rent at a certain price and then the owner wants to charge more and is surprised that there is a cap. current legislation" adds Sala.

The tenants

Salvador Carrera has been on the waiting list to rent for several weeks and has visited three properties that were not advertised. "The difficulty is very great at all levels. My current partner, soon to be ex, cannot afford to keep the apartment we are in because it is too big, and neither can I, so I am looking for something smaller. We are now roommates," says Carrera.

"The day before yesterday she found one. But now she is waiting to see if they accept her or not. It is one thing to find a home and another to be told: "We accept you and we want you. Your salary is correct, the income is correct, the owner thinks that you will not have problems, so come on, we accept you."

"I have come across cases where they tell me: "We do not accept you because the rent is low and we are looking for another profile." Seeing that in Girona is where the apartments are rented the fastest is discouraging, and a lot, but I have a lot of faith in things that are not tangible. But yes, it is discouraging, and a lot, and I say more, and a lot. and 30 years old, and it is a very complicated age," concludes Carrera.