An apartment, in the four neighborhoods that make up the Ciutat Vella district, is rented in an average of 11 days, according to the latest study by Housfy, which measures the time from when a rental ad is published until the contract with the owner is formalized. tenant. The average for all of Barcelona is 22.5 days.
Each one with its particularities, but with some common urban dynamics, the real estate market in Ciutat Vella is becoming more tense as it is forced to adapt to the behavior of two different profiles of inhabitants: families and gentrifiers.
On the shores of the homonymous beach, Barceloneta stands as the neighborhood where rental contracts are signed the fastest in the entire district.
If we understand the speed in renting a flat as a reflection of the ferocity of the demand, Barceloneta would be the second neighborhood with the highest rental demand in all of Barcelona, surpassed only by Bordeta, in Sants-Montjuïc.
It will be because of its privileged location and because its prices (€944.0 per month on average, according to the Servei d'Estudis i Documentació d'Habitatge for 2022) still glimpse, from a certain distance, the average for all of Barcelona (€1,026.9 ). But above all because the neighborhood, formerly a seafarer, has become a focus of real estate speculation that has displaced families to other areas of the metropolitan area to open the area to wild tourism.
Property owners in Barceloneta now rent them in 6 days on average. Take, for example, this apartment on Carrer de la Mestrança, with a small balcony that overlooks the beach. Housfy recently rented it for €1,050.
Gentrification is also happening on the other side of La Rambla. As local families have preferred to move to other areas of Barcelona with a higher quality of life, in the Born i el Gòtic the space is internationalized, touristified.
In the neighborhood whose name comes from the Gothic architectural heyday of the 14th century in Catalonia, real estate tension has reached another level. The average rental price is the highest in the district, with €1,133.4 per month. However, this data does not include those tourist or short-term stays, in which the prices, aimed at foreign pockets with high purchasing power, mortify the residents and push them to leave their neighborhood.
The situation extends to Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera, which includes the fashionable Born neighborhood, where the average rental price (€1,070.0 per month) is also higher than the city average.
In addition, here the apartments are rented in just two weeks (14.5 days), according to the Housfy report. An example is this house on Carrer de l'Oli, rented by the integral home platform for €1,300 per month.
On the other side of La Rambla, this neighborhood has not always been what it is now. In the Middle Ages, it was the suburb that was outside the walled enclosure of the city and it was a field with some isolated houses. After industrialization, it became a densely populated neighborhood with a manufacturing legacy and spaces for nightlife and debauchery.
Already in the center of a city in expansion, the City Council proceeds, with urban projects, to launder the reputation of the Raval and at the same time migration is activated. Migrant families from all over the world settle in it, and especially from outside Europe. Globalized youth are also attracted, finding in the neighborhood a unique urban community on the continent.
The rental price rises, multiplies. From an average of €571.8/month in 2023 to €912.0/month. Some investors see good opportunities in it with very high returns, since the price of brick (€3,343.2/m²) is still lower than the Barcelona average (€4,267.7/m²). And the tension between a unionized and fighting population and the vulture funds begins.
Flats in the Raval are rented in 16 days on average, almost a week earlier than in the rest of the city of Barcelona.
