Fear of the restrictions that the new Law on the Right to Housing may include has triggered the number of owners who choose to put their apartments up for seasonal rent, those of less than 12 months, which are not regulated by the Urban Leasing Law .
"For the first time there is more supply than demand for seasonal rental homes," says Quico Marín, general director of aTemporal. Marín points out that in his 17 years of experience in this type of rental, this is the first time it has happened. “Many landlords fear that the new housing law will cap rents or prevent rents from rising with the CPI, or extend to owners of more than five floors the obligation to offer social rent to illegal squatters or tenants who do not pay rent. . And they are diverting their homes to this sector,” says Marín. The first effect, moreover, has been to lower rents.
Marín co-founded aTemporal in 2019 with Nacho Martínez-Fortún and the firm today has a portfolio of 800 rental homes, 500 of them in Barcelona and the rest in Madrid, owned by "individuals or family offices, 90% of which have less than five stories. Clients, for their part, are 90% foreigners, who generally rent for between six and eight months. “We have digital nomads, employees of multinationals, postgraduate students from universities or business schools, diplomats, especially in Madrid, film crews or theater companies, athletes, such as the America's Cup teams, and people who They come to follow a long-term medical treatment”. In this sense, the firm has a collaboration agreement with the Sant Joan de Deu hospital.
Nacho Martínez-Fortún points out that in Barcelona they are in the city itself, practically in all the neighbourhoods, and in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat. “The location is not as important as having good access to the metro. For a European, a 20-minute journey by metro to go to work is to be in the center ”, he adds.
With the greater interest of the owners, explains Marín, new agencies are entering. But they are often homes that are not suitable for users of this type of rental.
The key is that these apartments must be fully equipped, and have Wi-Fi and supplies ready. The investment required for this, as well as the periods in which the apartment may be vacant between tenants and taxation, are key to the profitability that the owner can have.
“Many people consult us, but not all floors are suitable. And when we explain to them that they have to assume an investment of 12,000 to 14,000 euros to equip the house, they often give up”, adds Marín. In aTemporal, he explains, the homes have an average of 1.4 tenants per year, and an occupancy rate of around 95%.
Taxation is a key factor penalizing seasonal rentals for individual owners. “Long-term rentals have a better tax treatment for individuals in personal income tax: net income (the difference between income and assumed expenses) is taxed, reduced by 60%. This reduction does not have the seasonal rental. But neither do the companies, so for them our formula is indeed competitive”, says Marín.
Martínez-Fortún explains that some individuals also opt for this formula, even if it is less profitable, when they want to rent for periods of less than the five years established by the LAU "because they have gone to work abroad for a while, but want to return . Or because they have older children who anticipate that they will soon become independent”. For a legal person, Marín points out, seasonal rental may be a 25% more profitable option. The profitability for the owner, in peripheral neighborhoods, can be 5% or 6%.
ATemporal operates under the umbrella of the AFinance group: although it is an independent company, three of its partners are also members of the parent company. Last year, Marín points out, he had revenues of 1.2 million euros, which he plans to increase this year by 27% "since the market continues to grow: there are more and more multinationals and universities, and more people come with these short rental needs,” he says. The company has 15 employees "because we have the entire human resources, accounting and marketing structure of the group".
AFinance includes aProperties, a real estate company focused on luxury apartments and offices; aRetail, specialized in commercial premises; aCapital, in ships, hotels and other real estate and finally aYachts, specialized boats. The company brokered transactions worth 850 million euros in 2021, and has a workforce of 650 people.
