Spain will lose 23,000 rental properties this year as landlords switch to holiday lets, sell up or withdraw from the market

The rental market in Spain will lose 22,927 properties this year, significantly more than what the rental observatory predicted a few months ago.

Lanlords will either put them up on the seasonal market, sell them or withdraw them from the market altogether. Although to a lesser extend due to licencing requirements and regulations, some properties will become tourist lets.

This is the main conclusion of the second-quarter rental barometer, which identifies "legal uncertainty" as the primary reason why Spain will end 2026 with a stock of 660,993 rental properties, 3.2 per cent less than in 2025.

The figures show that the decline in the supply of rental homes has yet to bottom out. Although the downward trend has slowed compared with previous years, when annual losses exceeded 90,000 properties, the market has yet to stabilise.

Significant regional differences lie behind the overall decline. Catalonia, in particular, is forecast to see its rental stock fall to 94,947 properties, a 7.65 per cent drop, while the Madrid region is expected to maintain around 150,000 rental properties, the largest supply in Spain.

According to the rental barometer, these regional differences stem from the application of housing laws. While rental prices are capped in Catalonia, they are not in the capital, which is why the rental housing stock is falling in Catalonia.

Furthermore, in the Basque Country and A Coruña (Galicia), where rental regulation measures are also in place in some municipalities, the observatory predicts drops of 16.6 per cent and 12.4 per cent, respectively.

While the housing stock is decreasing, prices continue rising, albeit at a more moderate pace. The average rental price in Spain is to reach 1,211 euros in 2026, representing a 2.28 per cent increase compared to the end of 2025.

This is not slowing demand, which has reached an all-time high of 143 interested parties per rental property within a ten-day period, according to the rental observatory report.

The price increase isn't limited to rents. Housing in Spain is now approaching prices not seen since 2008. However, experts at think tank Funcas dismiss the idea of a real estate bubble like the one at the beginning of the millennium.

According to them, the problem isn't excessive financing fuelling an uncontrolled supply, but rather "a structural shortage that coexists with persistent demand and new forms of financial vulnerability".

Meanwhile, having 30,000 euros in savings for a down payment is not enough to buy a home in any provincial capital, according to a study by Pisos.com. Housing prices in large cities make buying a home impossible.

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