Chamber Of The Owner Blames Covid For Drop In Rents

The pandemic and the economic uncertainties derived from mobility limitations have been the main cause of the drop in rental prices in Barcelona. This is what the Chamber of Urban Ownership of Barcelona thinksthat, as a collaborating entity of the Institut Català del Sòl de la Generalitat de Catalunya, performs the registration and deposit of the lease contracts and the corresponding bonds, so it has updated rental data.

According to their data, the average rental price in Barcelona during the first quarter of 2021 has been 905 euros, which means that they have fallen by 9% since the last peak in the third quarter of 2019 when they exceeded a thousand euros of average (1,005 euros). The average of the prices that appear in the new housing contracts in Catalonia (excluding Barcelona) amounted to 636 euros per month in 2020, 2.1% more than in 2019.

“It should be noted that the drop in prices in the city has not been a consequence of the income containment lawwhich came into force in September 2020, but the main factor behind this drop has been the reduction in demand caused by the pandemic situation, “explains the Chamber.

This judgment is based on the fact that Madrid and Barcelona have registered a reduction in the price of Similar rents, despite the fact that in Madrid there is no legislation to control the rental price.Although the stock of homes available for lease has more than doubled at the end of 2020, in Barcelona this figure hides a reduction in supply since September 2020 of 10.2% as a result of the withdrawal of flats from the housing market due to the “legal uncertainty of Catalan legislation,” the statement added.

As a consequence of the pandemic, there has been a disappearance of the temporary demand of very important groups in the city, such as students or temporary foreign workers. The Chamber explains that, for example, New York has lost around 500,000 inhabitants and rents have fallen by around 15% due to lower demand.

For the experts of this real estate institution, “until now it has not been possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of the income containment law, since the rental market regulates itself to seek balance, and it does so in stages of increases but also downloads. , and none of these stages is infinite. ” The law put the focus on the large holders, but in Catalonia these are a minority. Most of the owners are individuals with one or two homes for rent.