The rental market is not letting up. Low supply and high demand make renting a home a hurdle for many renters. And next year the situation shows no signs of improvement. Rising mortgages are making it more difficult to access finance to buy a home, so stress in the rental market will continue to be present.

“In 2024, problems with access to housing will worsen,” the ministry says. Real Estate Market Report, Current Events and Forecast 2023 prepared by Forcadell and the University of Barcelona. “Failure to meet” demand “will result in rooms becoming a star market, especially in major cities,” the text unveiled this week explained.

The study estimates that while rents will rise by about 3% on average, they believe bedrooms next year will grow by 10%. The main reason, they add, will be high excess demand “caused by poor incentives and new penalties that investors may face if they want to buy a home and use it as a rental property.”

In this sense, they insist that the growth has “encouraged many young people to rent rooms and turned co-living into a big success.” However, they emphasize that the occupancy rate of these types of housing usually exceeds 95%.

The report emphasizes that the “anticipation of price controls” envisaged Housing law approved by PSOE and the Unidas Podemos government a few months ago, “scared off owners and they reduced the supply of housing.” According to the report’s authors, this has stifled supplies.

The shortage of real estate “has led to the fact that in large cities there are more than 10 interested parties for every available house,” they emphasize. And “the most vulnerable people in society are harmed the most, because today the owner is primarily trying to achieve security and not have problems with the tenant,” director Alex Vasquez explained during the presentation of the study. from Forcadell’s Rental Housing Management Division.

The company adds that some potential tenants offer even more than what the owner asks for to sign the contract. “The owner, in some cases en masse and in others a little, has moved to a seasonal rental mode,” recalls UB economics professor and director of the master’s program in real estate consulting, management and promotion at UB Gonzalo Bernardos.

He tenant profile According to data collected by the real estate portal Flats.com, the most frequent repetition in this sector of the rental market is among young women aged 18 to 25 living in the provinces of Madrid or Barcelona.

“Although living in communal apartments is still an option for most young people, more and more adults are forced to resort to this type of rental due to rising inflation and a decrease in your saving poweraspects that have driven them out of the traditional rental market,” explains in detail the portal’s research director, Ferran Font.

The monthly rental price report produced by Apartments.com shows that in October 2023, the average price of rental housing in Spain per square meter was 11 euros, up 7.32% from a year ago.

“We are witnessing one of the most challenging moments in the rental market as its squeeze-out limit increasingly expands to cover more demand profiles, even those that may initially appear solvent on paper,” says Font.

In addition to shared apartments, other formats in the rental housing sector are now gaining momentum. Flex Living, a sub-sector within Living that brings together under the concept of flexibility new solutions for temporary housing, professionally managed and including services, is experiencing rapid growth in Spain.

The number of beds has quadrupled since 2020, rising from 2,000 to about 8,000 currently, according to consultancy CBRE. The company estimates its supply could reach nearly 10,000 beds this year and is projected to double to nearly 20,000 beds by 2025. Currently, three out of every four operating room beds are located between Madrid And Barcelona. Likewise, Valencia, Malaga and Vizcaya are regions where there is a greater presence and forecast of this type of asset.