Barcelona has gone from 110 applicants per rental dwelling to 437. This data was provided this week by KPMG at the APIE courses, and it summarizes the market situation better than any other. Before the housing law, there was already tension. Now there is a bottleneck. Four times more demand for each available apartment.In the same intervention, another relevant figure was cited: since the approval of the law, approximately 120,000 homes would have disappeared from the rental market in Spain, of which about 60,000 would correspond to Catalonia. These are sectoral estimates, they should be treated as such, but they fit with what many citizens perceive when looking for an apartment: fewer ads, more filters, more competition, and a greater sense of impossibility.The regulation of rent has achieved something that its defenders can present as a success: prices have risen less in Catalonia than in Madrid. According to data cited by Fedea, between the first quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, rent accumulated an increase of 5.7% in Barcelona and Catalonia, compared to 8.5% in Madrid. The difference exists. It is important to acknowledge it. The regulation has moderated part of the increase.The question is: was it worth it to contain a three-point increase compared to Madrid if, in return, there are half the apartments and the number of applicants per apartment quadruples?Access to housing is measured by the rental price, of course, but also by accessibility. A smaller increase in rent is of little use to someone who cannot even visit the apartment. A more protected contract greatly benefits someone who is already inside an apartment, but is of little use to someone trying to get in.It is true that part of the fall in visible supply can be explained by lower turnover and more contract renewals. This was precisely one of the effects sought by the regulations: to give stability to the existing tenant. Surely those who already lived for rent have been a little more protected, but this protection has a downside: the new applicant finds a smaller, more selective and harsher market.Many economists warned about this from the beginning. The price is a symptom of a problem, not its root cause. When the price rises too much, it indicates scarcity, lack of supply, excess demand, or a combination of all of them. Managing the price without resolving the scarcity can alleviate the fever, but it does not cure the infection.Housing policy needs to increase supply, provide legal certainty and mobilize land. Capping prices collapses supply. It was textbook. The problem persists.
