The price of rent in Barcelona reached a new historical record during the first quarter of this year: 1,193 euros per month, according to official data obtained from deposits at Incasòl, which the Generalitat made public this Monday. Looking back, it is more than a hundred euros compared to the same period last year, when at 1,087 euros per month, the price of rent exceeded the minimum wage. In percentage terms, the increase is close to 10%, three times the CPI. Beyond confirming that prices seem to have no end in the city, the figure is important because it will be the last in the series before the price regulation that came into force in mid-March and will allow us to analyse its consequences on the market.
Prices have been rising for a decade, with the only exception being the pandemic and its economic hangover, which coincided with the first price regulation in Catalonia, the effect of which is difficult to analyse precisely because it overlapped with the effects of the global coronavirus epidemic. In Barcelona, prices range from 828.7 euros in the Nou Barris district to 1,651.8 euros in Sarrià Sant Gervasi. Of the city’s ten districts, only three have rents below a thousand euros: the aforementioned Nou Barris, Horta-Guinardó and Sant Andreu.
In Catalonia, the data show an average rental price of 868 euros, 6.9% more than during the first quarter of 2023. The Tenants’ Union has assessed that both the Catalan and Barcelona averages are “figures that generate serious repercussions for household economies, increasingly suffocated by rent payments.”
Beyond the capital, rents in Girona cost 807 euros, in Lleida 586 and in Tarragona 664. In large cities such as L’Hospitalet, monthly rent costs 880 euros, in Reus 604, in Terrassa 730, in Sabadell 807 and in Badalona, 878 euros. The town with the most expensive rents is Sant Vicenç de Montalt (1,786 euros), and others with high rents are Sant Cugat (1,419), Premià (1,341) or Alella (1,290).
The Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property cites several reasons for the increase. Inflation, the larger surface area of rented apartments and the “imbalance between growing demand and supply that cannot respond at the same pace, which leads to increases above the CPI in all districts (except Sants-Montjuïc)”. The Chamber also points out that the largest increases are recorded in the most expensive districts. Finally, the organisation points to one last reason for the increase: the fact that owners are investing in improvements to their homes, to “offer higher-level apartments, which is reflected in prices”.
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For its part, the Tenants’ Union, which promoted price regulation first in Catalonia (between September 2020 and March 2022) and then by the Government, attributes the increases in the first quarter of this year to an attempt by landlords to raise prices before the regulation of increases came into force. The spokesperson for the Union, Enric Aragonès, recalled that the organization detected, before the regulation came into force, cases of owners trying to raise prices, even forcing the signing of new contracts for apartments that still had a contract in force. “The regulation is complied with, but there are renters willing to do whatever it takes to not comply with the regulation.” “We see deliberate efforts by the real estate employers’ association to circumvent the law, not sign new contracts and continue to raise prices through temporary rentals or room rentals,” denounces the union, which last week presented a bill in Congress with the support of the parties Podemos, Sumar, BNG, ERC and EH Bildu.
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