#barcelonarentals

A clear and attractive domain perfect for vacation rentals, property listings, or travel services in Barcelona. Memorable, local, and market-ready.

The Catalan Generalitat (government) is looking into increasing the amount of tax tourists pay when staying in a Catalan vacation rental. Landlords collect this tax as part of the rental payment from the tenant and pass it on to the government. As the law stands all tourists staying in a Catalan rental have to pay a certain amount of tax for each day stay – this amount could soon be increased. At present the daily tourist rental tax in Barcelona is €0.65 but if the proposed changes are initiated the daily tourist rental tax will go up to €2.25. In other parts of Catalonia the increase will not be as dramatic as Barcelona’s proposed 250% increase. Instead the daily tourist rental tax in other parts of Catalonia will increase by €0.90.

Holiday rentals in Barcelona are always a hot topic in the Barcelona property market. There are several controversies over the issue of rental licenses, long term rentals, short term rentals and illegal rentals. Approximately 40% of vacation rentals in Barcelona are illegal; this means that they are not licensed by the municipality so they don’t pay tax on the profits earned and don’t have to abide by any legal requirements for rentals. However perhaps the biggest impact of illegal short term rentals in Barcelona on the property market in general is that the landlords can charge whatever they want, and so the price of holiday rentals in Barcelona is driven up. There is always a demand for short term rentals by tourists visiting Barcelona and the demand doesn’t not look like it will ease off any time soon. Tourism in Barcelona is booming. The problem is that the price of rentals in general gets pushed up due to illegal rentals and this drives the price of rentals up for local residents. A landlord with a property to rent would rather rent illegally to tourist and make more money than to rent to locals for long term and make less money. Vacation rentals are taking properties off the ordinary rental market. The financial returns on short term tourist rentals are 2-4 times higher than on regular long term rentals. For this reason home owners often prefer to break the law and rent to tourists illegally. A majority of the rentals are concentrated in Eixample and the Gothic Quarter. Many of the illegal rentals are in the Old Town. For every one legal rental in the Old Town there are four illegal tourist rentals.

A new study of the Spanish property market has brought to light some interesting facts about the Spanish rental market.

Average Spanish Rental Home: 90m² Apartment costing approximately €540 a month.

Spanish rental market will grow by 10% in 2016.

Rental prices in the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Madrid, Pais Vasco and Catalina are higher than the rest of the country.

37% of rental apartment tenants are single parent families.

28.5% of rental apartment tenants are single people.

23.9% of rental apartment tenants are a family of two adults or more with children.

An all time high of 70 million tourists are expected to visit Spain in the coming year. However this does not help new property owners who want to rent out their homes as tourist rental properties unless they buy a property which already has a tourist short term rental license. If you are lucky enough to find a property to buy which already has a license then you will find that the price is higher. Sellers can put their asking price up if the property comes with a short term rental license. Now that the Barcelona city hall has put a moratorium on new short term rental licenses the hotels can breathe a sigh of relief. Not long ago the hotel industry in Barcelona was up in arms about the damage illegal private rentals, online rental sites and the number of legal short term rentals in Barcelona was having on the tourist industry.

Barcelona municipal officials are worried that the city is moving towards a crisis in the rental market, mainly because of the state of the holiday rental market. City Hall has been concerned with the rental market for quite some time; even before the election of Mayor Ada Colau, anti-eviction activist, the party used the rental issue as one of their campaign lines.

So what is the problem with BCN rents?

The problem with the rental market in Barcelona according to City Hall is the exaggerated high rents which seem to be continuing to rise. Barcelona rental prices are still low when compared to other European cities but the current trend resembles that which gripped the city during the rental price bubble. The average rent in Barcelona rose by 6.6% in 2015 reaching 727€ per meter squared. The increase in Barcelona rents in 2015 was the biggest increase in the country. City Hall would like to have more social housing to rent to low-income residents and they are encouraging landlords to do this by offering incentives to the owners of properties which are standing empty. The municipal government wants owners of properties which are standing empty to rent out their property in order to increase the number of social housing units available. However the municipality plans to offer incentives at the same time that they impose rent control regulations limiting the amount of rent landlords can charge. The enforcement of rent control is only planned for certain areas of the city.