For a year now, Catalonia has been a real estate laboratory. This Sunday marks 12 months since the Generalitat decided to adopt the Housing Law and declare “stressed areas” in 140 of its municipalities, later adding another 131. It was the first community to do so – the Basque Country joined later, and so far no one else has – and today 90% of the Catalan population lives in an officially stressed locality. Twelve months later, prices continue to rise in the region, but the rental supply has contracted worryingly: Catalonia has ceased to be the community with the most available supply – it has fallen to third place – and has seen 25.7% of available apartments vanish, nearly 40,000, as reported by the newspaper El Mundo.
“The declaration of tense market areas in Catalonia has been disastrous,” points out Antonio Carroza, president of Alquiler Seguro. “The residential rental market has been destroyed, driving away tens of thousands of property owners who have opted for other alternatives and skyrocketing the number of people interested in each offer, which greatly complicates access to housing for tenants,” he adds. In parallel to this contraction in supply, prices have not been contained following the declaration of tense areas that allow for market intervention. According to the monthly rental price report conducted by Pisos.com, a “typical property” in Catalonia in February of this year has reached an average cost of €15.10 per square meter, representing an annual increase of 17.51%, higher than what has occurred in the rest of Spain, where the average rental price has grown by 13.25% in the same period.
