Why does the rental price vary so much in Barcelona and Catalonia depending on the source that provides the data? This Thursday, the real estate portal in Catalonia and Barcelona during the year 2024: an increase of 12.4% in the community and 13.9% in the Catalan capital. A few weeks ago, Fotocasa pointed to similar year-on-year increases in Barcelona, 13% from November to November. Very far from the figures of the Generalitat, which announced the data for the second and third quarters of last year pointing to: 1.1% year-on-year (from July to September 2024 compared to 2023) as a whole and 3.2% in the case of Barcelona.
The volume of the fanfare in the press releases of both parties is the only thing they agree on: and it boasts of being the first community to regulate prices; while Idealista attributes the apocalypse that renting an apartment has become to regulation (less supply of residential rentals, more expensive and more capacity of landlords to convert the rental of a home into a casting call for the highest bidder).
But, how can it be that in the last year the portals report increases while the Generalitat points to falls? To begin with, Catalonia has a uniqueness: its figures come from the deposits that landlords deposit when new contracts are signed, an official statistic that most communities do not have and represents, according to sources in the sector, 80% of the market. . On the other hand, the data from the portals is about offer prices: what the owners ask for in the advertisements of the moment. We do not know what price tenants end up paying, although given how heated the market is, the margin for negotiation should be small. Furthermore, since price regulation, advertisements for , the formula that many landlords resort to to avoid rent caps, have gained a lot of weight on advertising websites and which
There is a third cause: many of the apartments that end up complying with the regulations are not advertised. A lifelong “they take them off my hands,” thanks to word of mouth or listings that agencies have of people looking for a rent they can afford. Given the madness of the market, which is always ahead of regulations (two examples would be the diversion of houses to seasonal rentals or the extensions of a single year pending receipt of up to eight resources), it would also not be unreasonable for the existence of irregularities: landlords who do not deposit, or the registration of contracts and deposit of deposits even though the payment of a separate amount has been agreed.
While stopping the bleeding of supply is going at the pace of a rheumatic turtle, he demands without success an institutional information campaign on networks, TV or the subway about the regulation that Catalonia launched last March. Because even though it may seem unbelievable, there are still tenants who are unaware of their rights to a basic right.
