Seasonal rentals signed in Barcelona in 2024 represent 2.68% of the total.
The Catalan capital registered 8,406 temporary rentals last year, 40.8% more year-on-year than in 2023.
BarcelonaSeasonal rentals in Barcelona have skyrocketed in recent years, especially since the introduction of the state housing law. Approved in May 2023, this law laid the groundwork for subsequent rental regulations, which came into effect in March 2024, with a price cap on traditional leases. However, it did not affect the entire market, but excluded short-term rentals. This has led to a sharp increase in these types of contracts.
While the Ministry of Housing and the Generalitat (Catalan government) provided data on the rise in seasonal rentals—in 2024, the number of seasonal rentals grew 40.8% more than the previous year, with 8,406 new contracts signed—no data had been released until now on the significance of this type of rental. According to a report prepared by the Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, taking into account that the available rental stock in the Catalan capital is 314,144 homes, the 8,406 new seasonal rental contracts signed last year—data taken from Incasòl deposits—represent 2.68%. This figure could be higher, considering that there may still be seasonal rental contracts in force from those signed in 2023 (they have a maximum duration of 12 months, and therefore, those that remain would expire in a few months).
The Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, an associative entity that represents and serves urban property owners, also states that, according to the same report, the average duration of seasonal rental contracts signed in 2024 stands at 12.42 months. These data are not from Incasol, but rather from a sample of more than 1,400 contracts registered by the entity itself.
The 2023 outbreak
For perspective, this type of rental skyrocketed by 140.8% between the first and fourth quarters of 2023, when the rent cap was still months away. During the same period, new regulated rental contracts—contracts lasting five or seven years—in the Catalan capital plummeted by 21.6%. Last year, also comparing the first and last quarters of the year, while new seasonal rental contracts grew by 88.2%, new regulated contracts fell by 22.1%.
