Last year, foreign citizens signed 43% of the rental contracts managed by Amat Immobiliaris in Barcelona, as explained this morning by its general manager, Guifré Homedes, a percentage that has tripled from less than 15% that they assumed before the pandemic. Amat has seen a similar process in Sant Cugat (16% of contracts are signed by foreigners) and Sant Just Desvern (9%).
According to Homedes, this group of "digital nomads" reflects "the change that has taken place in the city, which has created a very favorable environment for startups and technology companies".
"They are essentially small businessmen, who in their countries already worked from home, and who now do so from Barcelona. In our case, a large percentage are French, who keep the company in France, and do not opt for a seasonal rental because they have the prospect of staying long-term." This collective is one of the factors that put upward pressure on rents "because they have European salaries and pay prices that the locals can no longer bear". In his opinion, "a similar phenomenon is occurring in other cities such as Lisbon, with a good business environment, house prices below European levels and a high quality of life".
Amat emphasized that the increase in foreign demand adds pressure to an already tense rental market, since "the rise in rates makes it more difficult for young people to buy, so the rental flats do not rotate" . Both factors have increased the average age of tenants, so that 50% are already over 40 years old. And the offer continues to fall strongly, and in Amat it is at the lowest level in its seventy-five-year history.
Homedes explained that his company formalized 9% fewer contracts last year than the previous year, due to a lack of product. "The second semester of 2022 was the one in which we had the fewest apartments available in the last five years, and only in the confinement quarter did we have a lower offer", and this year "we only see prospects for worsening". The company rents homes from small owners, who have an average of 3.3 floors, and they have doubled the homes in their portfolios that they put up for sale in addition to not buying any new ones. "Sales to investors used to be 20% of our sales and now only 5%", he pointed out. "The owners fear that the law will change and lower the threshold of flats that qualifies them as large owners", which is now 10 homes but which the new housing law wants to reduce to 5, so that "they no longer want to have more than three floors". In this way, Amat expects to rent between 150 and 200 fewer homes this year than last year, "and we will be in half of what we used to rent a few years ago".
The lack of supply, with an increasing demand, has caused new price increases, which in the case of Amat has oscillated between stability in the district of Sant Andreu, Ciutat Vella and les Corts and increases in 31% in Gràcia or 20% in Eixample. "The average income of the contracts we sign already exceeds 1,200 euros/month in all the offices", he added.
In his opinion, market tensions can only be resolved by increasing the supply of rental flats, with public-private collaboration formulas, and encouraging price reductions with measures such as tax incentives for owners who rent below of the market level. "The administrations do not have the money to build flats directly and it would take many years. But everything that seems to be proposed goes in the opposite direction", he lamented.
