Only 10% of holiday rentals are villas
Four out of ten homeowners who put their property on the holiday rental market managed to rent the property within the first two weeks. In fact, 7% managed to get a tenant within the first week. 16% rented the property within one week, while 19% needed two weeks to rent it.
“The speed and ease of renting tourist accommodation for both owners and renters, coupled with the historically high number of tourists in Spain shows this type of rental (short-term) is experiencing a real boom in large cities and tourist destinations.”, explains Beatriz Toribio, Head of Studies at fotocasa. She also added that more and more owners are opting to offer their property for holiday lets.
The fotocasa study, “X-Ray of the Housing Market in 2016-2017” showed that 5% of the population over 18 years of age offered their property to the rental market. Of these people, 12% say that they only rented their property for short periods. Regarding the current demand for housing, of Spaniards who are looking to purchase a property, 2% say they intend to offer the property for holiday rental.
Additionally, the report shows the profiles of owners who have rented their house in the last year; 54% were women with a mean age of 44 years and middle-class. 4% are between 18 and 24 years old. 24% are aged between 25 and 34 years. 28% are aged between 35 and 44 years. 21% are aged 45 to 55. 24% are over 55 years.
Property Types
Regarding the housing they are renting, in 69% of cases it is an apartment or flat. 10% were a house or villa. In addition, 57% of rental properties are less than 20 years old. 14% are between 20 and 30 years old. 11% are between 30 and 50 years old, and 17% are over 50 years old.
As for the size of the rental properties, the report found that 18% are between 40 and 60 square metres. 28% are between and 60 and 80 square metres, and 26% are between 80 and 100 square metres.
Location
According to the fotocasa data, 22% of owners are in Andalusia. The community of Madrid is home to 19% of private landlords, while Catalonia and Valencia both have 12%. Basque Country accounts for 1%, with the remaining 35% spread over the other autonomous communities.
Regarding the prices, 63% of holiday rental owners said they needed to change the initial price to be able to rent the house. 49% say they had to lower the price following negotiation with the tenant, while 14% say they lowered the price of their own accord.
As for the price variations, 59% say they varied the price by up to 10%. 28% altered the price between 10 and 15%. 6% changed the price by more than 15%. 8% required a change above 20%. In addition, 67% reduced the price during the first month, while 21% did so between the first and third month. On average, the discount applied was 134€.
