In the cities of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Palma de Mallorca and Pamplona the price for renting a room does not, in any case, fall below 500 euros per month. Paying for a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen (these last three rooms shared with more people) costs 466 euros per month on average. It is 42% more than five years ago and 76% higher than the 2015 figures, according to the Fotocasa portal. Room rental in Spain has undergone a significant metamorphosis in recent years until it has become an (involuntary) protagonist in life of thousands of people in our country. In a very short time it has gone from being a small, affordable market only linked to young people, especially students, to being the only option for many tenants – although very expensive and increasingly expensive – and an interesting business for the owners who until now They had only designated their apartments for long-term rentals. The difference is that they are usually governed by the Civil Code and not by the Urban Leases Law (LAU), which sets the duration of the contract at five years, among other issues. The Ministry of Housing has already put a magnifying glass on this type of rental, considering that it is contributing to raising prices in the cities. Minister Isabel Rodríguez revealed in an interview in EL PAÍS, on April 14, her intention to regulate it as it is “leaving people unprotected.” There are more and more citizens who rent rooms and not for pleasure, but because of the impossibility of paying. a full rental. No less than 44% of Spaniards who share an apartment do so because they cannot afford a full rental, according to Fotocasa. There is no official record of rent by room and, furthermore, it is quite difficult to keep track of it given that there are payments in black. The Rental Observatory, prepared by the Safe Rental Foundation and the Rey Juan Carlos University, provides some data: “The growth of rooms in the last year at the supply level would be around 26.2%. And the increase in the price of rooms would have risen by 8.3%.”The Fotocasa portal has analyzed the evolution of the offer in recent years in some of the cities where prices are higher. In Madrid the balance was negative until 2021, the year in which supply grew by 218%. In 2024, until April, it has increased by 24% compared to the same month of the previous year. In Barcelona, it has grown 24% year-on-year and in Malaga a surprising 96%. The owners have found a more generous sector. The profitability of traditional long-term rental is 6.6% gross annually and 9.5% in the case of rooms, according to Fotocasa analysis. “It is almost 50% higher than renting an entire home. The price of a room is around 466 euros, while a complete house of about 80 square meters is around 900 euros. If the property has three bedrooms, the gross profitability exceeds that of conventional rental,” explains María Matos, director of studies and spokesperson for the portal.
Taxation
The owner considers that it is a more flexible market and, in addition, it escapes – or so he believes, because this will not always be the case – from the control of the LAU and the limits on updating the rent set by the Government (3% in 2024). . Almost full. “The owner feels that it is an alternative to hyperregulation, that it is not a condiment that favors the market and, in addition, it is somewhat more profitable,” says Ana González, deputy secretary of the Confederation of Owners' Associations. Although, González recalls, “this modality does not have tax deductions, as is the case with traditional rentals. You pay taxes at 100% and that causes you to lose some profitability.” And so, in search of greater performance and certainty, this is how they abandon traditional leasing to make the leap to renting rooms in which, in addition, they can take advantage of multiple options. : rental for years, months or days. “The motivation for renting rooms for short periods, usually for days, is diverse: avoiding housing law, avoiding local tourist regulations, having more room for action to be able to jump from one market to another (residential, tourist, seasonal, rooms) «, avoid fiscal control…», comments Sergio Cardona, analyst at the Rental Observatory. The rise in room rental perfectly illustrates the profound social changes that are taking place and whose main cause is the housing crisis. “In recent years, room rental has become a housing solution that has jumped the traditional age cohort of young people to become a solution at almost any age,” says Cardona. Eduardo Fernández-Fígares, from the Abogados firm para Todos, confirms the arrival of more profiles: “Before it was students and little else and now we find workers of all kinds, pushed by the high prices of complete homes and the lack of supply.” A very clarifying example is Cádiz, a province hit hard by the crisis and unemployment, where the average age of renting rooms is 58 years. “This same thing, with age groups over 40 years old, is happening in many provinces, where renting rooms is, due to price, the housing option for people with low incomes, as they cannot afford to rent a home” explains Cardona. The leasing of rooms is regulated by the Civil Code and not by the LAU, which generates security for the owner because, in theory, he is not obliged to rent for periods of five years and, in theory, it can also be easier to evict non-paying tenants. But it's not always like this. Lawyer Fernández-Fígares, specialized in evictions due to non-payment of rent, speaks of “a false illusion that is causing room contracts to be put on the market instead of complete housing.” He explains that “although the owner believes that it is a subject contract to the Civil Code you may be surprised that the judge says that you are subject to the LAU. This will depend on whether that room constitutes the tenant's habitual residence. It happened last February in an eviction lawsuit for non-payment of rent for a room. The judge ruled in the order that a room can be a habitual residence, that is, the tenant may have the right to the protection that is offered when it is a complete habitual residence. “And that the fact of overlooking this very important piece of information would mean that the tenant would be unprotected because the vulnerability regulations of the housing law could not be applied to him (specifically the new article 441.5 LEC) which requires the court, ex officio , to inform social services that a lawsuit has been filed against a tenant, so that they can rule on whether the tenant is vulnerable or not.» Follow all the information from Economy and Business on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter