Property portal Fotocasa have released data showing that the average price of rental property in Spain increased by 3.1% in the first quarter. Compare this to the data released last week by Idealista which also suggested an increase, but slightly higher at 4.3%.
Renting one square metre now costs an average of 7.24€ per month. This continues the trend that began in 2015 following eight years of widespread falls.
Beatriz Toribio, from fotocasa, said “The rental market is experiencing a strong momentum in recent years and that is moving prices. According to recent studies fotocasa.es, 60% of homeowners who last year rented a house did not have to lower the price of initial offer to lease and 90% found a tenant in less than six months, “.
In 2015 the cost of renting increased slightly in Q1 and Q2 with increases of 2.8% and 1.5%, respectively. Other than those two quarters, and the odd one in 2011 and 2014, rental costs had been consistently falling.
The first-quarter increase was seen in 11 of Spain’s autonomous communities on both the quarterly basis and also on a year-on-year basis. The quarterly variation is higher at 4%, the second sharpest quarterly increase since 2006.
Since the crisis of 2007 rental costs have fallen cumulatively by 28.5%, with some regions recording even steeper declines. Aragon has seen rental costs fall by 40%, while Valencia has seen costs decline 31.9%.
Catalonia Takes Top Spot
For the first time, Catalonia has unseated the Basque Country as the most expensive community to rent property in Spain. If you are looking to rent a property in Catalonia you should now expect a cost per square metre of 10.19€ per month. The Basque Country isn’t completely beaten yet, as they recorded an average cost for Q1 of only 1 cent less, with a price of 10.18€ per square metre per month. Madrid takes the third spot with a cost of 10.08€ per square metre per month.
At the other end of the scale we find the cheapest rental costs are in Extremadura (4.46€ p/m2 per month) and Castilla-La Mancha (4.66€ p/m2 per month).
We also see increases in 32 of Spain’s provinces with increases ranging from 0.1% all the way up to 9.2%
