The large owners, those who own more than ten properties, are among the main affected by the future housing law agreed between the PSOE and United We Can to contain the price of rents. In the event that they are constituted as legal entities, and are in an area in which rents are considered triggered, they will have to apply caps to the monthly payments they charge. The Executive estimates that this price control will affect some 150,000 flats throughout Spain. Where are those great landlords? How many? The provinces of Madrid, Barcelona and some coastal areas concentrate most of these large forks, according to the Cadastre.
The statistics of the real estate market have many deficiencies and there are no official figures. However, an approximation can be obtained thanks to the data of the General Directorate of Cadastre, dependent on the Ministry of Finance, which has registered around 270,000 owners of more than 10 properties throughout the country, although it does not specify whether they are publicly owned. or private, if they are homes, garages or storage rooms or if they are individuals or companies. The figures do not include the Basque Country and Navarra, which have their own cadastral agencies.
Big cities
Spain is the country of small owners, in which most young people aspire to take out mortgages to buy a home instead of renting. These small owners account for 85% of the total, according to government calculations. But the remaining 15% is concentrated among large holders. And a good part of them are in the big cities. In Madrid there are 26,573 owners of more than 10 properties, according to the Cadastre data, followed by Barcelona (25,573) and Valencia (16,147). These three provinces also have a significant number of owners with more than 50 assets, from 1,718 in Madrid to 1,627 in Barcelona and 786 in Valencia.
Coastal areas
Another significant characteristic is the concentration of large landowners in coastal areas, such as Alicante (13,157), Murcia (11,496), the Balearic Islands (9,272) and Las Palmas (8,435). Also in the north, for example in Asturias and A Coruña, with about 7,000 each province. In addition, there are a significant number of large landowners in Andalusia, especially in the province of Malaga (8,927).
Stressed areas
The new law will differentiate between the so-called stressed areas and the rest. And it turns out that many of the areas in which large landlords are concentrated tend to be more difficult to rent apartments at reasonable prices, that is to say, with great probability they will be in the category of stressed area, with Madrid and Barcelona leading the way.
During the pandemic, price falls have been registered due to the lack of economic activity and the fall in tourism (with falls in Madrid of 7.7% between last September and the same month of the previous year, according to data from the Idealista portal, and 7.3% in Barcelona), but experts point out that the economic recovery and the high level of vaccination against covid are beginning to translate into slight quarterly increases: Barcelona (2%), Palma (1.9%), Madrid (1.5%) and Malaga (0.3%), according to the same source.
150,000 floors affected
The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, explained this Wednesday in an interview on Onda Cero that the Government calculates that the control of rental prices will affect some 150,000 homes and has recalled that this measure, in any case , the autonomous communities will have to activate it. “I want to convey a message of tranquility to small owners, because in no case is there a radical interventionism with the Housing Law,” Sánchez insisted. In the event that the apartment is rented to a company considered a large owner, the price of the monthly rent will be determined by the maximum set by the rental price index.