# Spain’s new real estate boom: the rental market



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

The Spanish real estate market is experiencing a new boom, this time in the rental sector. The average rent for new leases has risen 20.9% over the last year, according to leading industry website Idealista. And cities like Madrid and Barcelona saw record average prices.


https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/07/03/inenglish/1499075153_385634.html


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Yes it has boomed here - & there's a distinct lack of stock!

Coming to the end of a 3 year contract I've been trying to decide whether or not to stay put. 

I've been checking online daily to see what's out there... & there isn't much.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

No good will come of this. All slumps begin with the bursting of an asset bubble and for the recent past the asset has been property.
In recent months our village has seen a spectacular increase in new build projects. Some has been welcome, like half-finished single properties being finished off. Other new projects are filling up what was previously unattractive waste land.
I can't help wondering who will buy these new properties. No problem with the high end 'luxury' market, there will always be the monied elite looking to buy. But all these two and three bed pisos in the under 350k euro price range of which there is a glut in the Province .....it's likely that fewer Brits will buy what with falling value of the £ and Brexit uncertainty and is the population of Scandinavia sufficient to fill all those empty apartments?
I give it two more years at the most before Kondratiev's Wave Theory kicks in....yet again.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> The Spanish real estate market is experiencing a new boom, this time in the rental sector. The average rent for new leases has risen 20.9% over the last year, according to leading industry website Idealista. And cities like Madrid and Barcelona saw record average prices.
> 
> 
> https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/07/03/inenglish/1499075153_385634.html


Is it because that mortgages are still hard to obtain?


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Isobella said:


> Is it because that mortgages are still hard to obtain?


I have to say that I hope so. Can't remember where but I read that some credit card companies extend the credit limits of those who fall behind with monthly minimum repayments.
I've had a credit card since they were first introduced in the mid '60s. It was a Barclaycard, a blue, orange and white horizontally striped confection. From the first use of that card to this day I have without fail paid off my monthly debt. Amex once told me that because of that I was, in their eyes, a poor customer!!

Maybe it stems back to the days many decades ago when my thrifty grandmother would send me on my bike to her nephew the local butcher with instructions like 'A pound of best mince for Mrs. Cooke and don't give me no rubbish'. If the bill was a halfpenny less than the money I'd been given I had to pedal straight back with the money owed.
I suppose that keeping out of debt, along with whitening the doorstep and keeping the brass knocker polished, was a way of maintaining respectability for poor folk. Well, luckily I'm not poor but I've had a life-long aversion to debt of any kind, loans, mortgages, credit cards....I think that there's something deeply wrong with an economy based as are most in the western world on 'live now pay later'.
One small percentage point rise in interest rates or even a fraction thereof could we are told, cause hardship for very many. And a rise is inevitable....


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> I suppose that keeping out of debt, along with whitening the doorstep and keeping the brass knocker polished, was a way of maintaining respectability for poor folk.


It just means some poor people have brains, and know that getting into debt is not a recipe for happiness, as did Mr. Micawber.
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> I have to say that I hope so. Can't remember where but I read that some credit card companies extend the credit limits of those who fall behind with monthly minimum repayments.
> I've had a credit card since they were first introduced in the mid '60s. It was a Barclaycard, a blue, orange and white horizontally striped confection. From the first use of that card to this day I have without fail paid off my monthly debt. Amex once told me that because of that I was, in their eyes, a poor customer!!
> 
> Maybe it stems back to the days many decades ago when my thrifty grandmother would send me on my bike to her nephew the local butcher with instructions like 'A pound of best mince for Mrs. Cooke and don't give me no rubbish'. If the bill was a halfpenny less than the money I'd been given I had to pedal straight back with the money owed.
> ...


Ermm why have you always had a flexible friend when that is what they were designed for ? (Credit/Debt)


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Isobella said:


> Is it because that mortgages are still hard to obtain?


Possibly because only 30% of the workforce have permanent jobs. Nearly 20% out of work and the rest on temporary/seasonal contracts.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

VFR said:


> Ermm why have you always had a flexible friend when that is what they were designed for ? (Credit/Debt)


Simple. To keep my current account in the black at all times. One payment each month clears all. Then if needed I top up from other sources.
I do it now with my Spanish credit card. I find it easier to keep track of my finances that way. 

I have a real aversion to gambling and credit both of which seem to be our chief industries these days, judging by tv adverts.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> The Spanish real estate market is experiencing a new boom, this time in the rental sector. The average rent for new leases has risen 20.9% over the last year, according to leading industry website Idealista. And cities like Madrid and Barcelona saw record average prices.
> 
> 
> https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/07/03/inenglish/1499075153_385634.html


Wow 20.9% in one year !!! Someone needs to tell the market in my neck of the woods....

We rented out a flat in Madrid 5 years ago, so are now looking at renewing the contract with the tenant. During the 5 yr term, the EMVS (the official Town Hall estate agency for rentals) has informed us every year of the legally applicable increases in the rent that we could have charged the tenant, but these have always been insignificant amounts so we never increased it.

Thinking that it may now be a good time to negotiate a new amount with him, I looked at similar properties in the same area as ours. I found 11 properties on Idealista and took the average asking price as a starting point.

This new average price (remember, based on Idealista asking price, so not the "real" prices) is only 8% more than the current rent which has been unchanged for 5 years!

So, boom? Maybe in some areas and for some categories of properties, but certainly not across the board.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Overandout said:


> Wow 20.9% in one year !!! Someone needs to tell the market in my neck of the woods....
> 
> We rented out a flat in Madrid 5 years ago, so are now looking at renewing the contract with the tenant. During the 5 yr term, the EMVS (the official Town Hall estate agency for rentals) has informed us every year of the legally applicable increases in the rent that we could have charged the tenant, but these have always been insignificant amounts so we never increased it.
> 
> ...


Probably something to do with areas or type of property. The only first hand experience I have of this is a friend who is renting in Madrid centre and wanting to move to a bigger property and she says the rents have risen a lot, lot ,lot - 20% I don't know but...


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Simple. To keep my current account in the black at all times. One payment each month clears all. Then if needed I top up from other sources.
> I do it now with my Spanish credit card. I find it easier to keep track of my finances that way.
> 
> I have a real aversion to gambling and credit both of which seem to be our chief industries these days, judging by tv adverts.


But you are actually using credit, albeit not paying interest during the interest-free period (it's the people who can't pay their cards out each month who are actually paying the interest for you and others who can).


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

You are probably right, but it is unusual, because normally the "modest" properties are the first to experience the increases in boom times, and ours is 65m2 2 beds in Madrid (just outside the M30, so maybe that is the problem) and with Metro, Cercanías and bus all close...., so in theory a high demand rental property.

I admit that I was hoping to be able to raise the rent a bit more, but as he is a great tenant we don't want to push him out!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Overandout said:


> You are probably right, but it is unusual, because normally the "modest" properties are the first to experience the increases in boom times, and ours is 65m2 2 beds in Madrid (just outside the M30, so maybe that is the problem) and with Metro, Cercanías and bus all close...., so in theory a high demand rental property.
> 
> I admit that I was hoping to be able to raise the rent a bit more, but as he is a great tenant we don't want to push him out!


I think it's strange that your rental hasn't gone up more, but then I don't really understand the property market


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

EverHopeful said:


> But you are actually using credit, albeit not paying interest during the interest-free period (it's the people who can't pay their cards out each month who are actually paying the interest for you and others who can).


I'm not borrowing, I could use a debit card and pay everything on the spot, I choose not to for my convenience. Point is I have no debt when the bill comes in and pay no interest.

No doubt some in these tough times are compelled to live on credit to cover the basic necessities although there are many things now considered necessities that I wouldn't describe as such.
When I was hard up in my younger days I budgeted and didn't buy what I couldn't afford. I remember times when a luxury was a Friday night bottle of Tizer and a copy of the New Statesman


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Coincidentally I've just been discussing credit facilities in our village. Many householders do well-paid seasonal work, such as cutting cork. They get around €15,000 for three months' work then for the rest of the year, just odds and ends. When the money runs out, the local shops (which don't do cards) give them a "slate" which they pay off when they get paid.

The furniture/electrical goods shop does take cards, but many older people who need, say, a new washing machine or armchair will pay in a bit each week and take delivery once they've saved enough. It's like reverse hire purchase.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> I'm not borrowing, I could use a debit card and pay everything on the spot, I choose not to for my convenience. Point is I have no debt when the bill comes in and pay no interest.
> 
> No doubt some in these tough times are compelled to live on credit to cover the basic necessities although there are many things now considered necessities that I wouldn't describe as such.
> When I was hard up in my younger days I budgeted and didn't buy what I couldn't afford. I remember times when a luxury was a Friday night bottle of Tizer and a copy of the New Statesman


You are indeed borrowing (interest-free) until such time as your monthly account is due or you choose to pay it.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

EverHopeful said:


> You are indeed borrowing (interest-free) until such time as your monthly account is due or you choose to pay it.


You may see it as borrowing, I don't. When we were in business we had many customers who had accounts with us. Were they 'borrowing' from us until we sent their bill to be settled after thirty days? When you stay in a hotel you pay when you leave. Is that borrowing for the nights you haven't paid? You're stretching the meaning of the term 'borrowing'.
My point, the important one, is this: I pay when I get a bill. The same day. I've always done so and always will. I've never needed to live on credit, partly because I've always been in well=paid work and because I keep with my financial limits.
If employers paid all working people a decent wage maybe there would be no need for the credit industry.


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