After some disagreement with the collection of rent for the apartment that she inherited from her parents, Elena M. decided a few months ago to listen to a friend and change the formula. She no longer rents the house in Poble Sec for 950 euros, but after making some improvements ‘squeeze’ one by one its rooms at a rate of 600, 500 and 450 euros, depending on size, until obtaining 1,550 euros per month. The first was rented to a friend who is responsible for the property and controls the rest of the tenants. It is not the only formula that breaks the mold of the traditional shared student flat where expenses were shared. The evolution of the market –whether due to prices or legal uncertainty– has led many owners, both individuals such as property managers, to choose to rent rooms for medium stays to people who do not know each other but will share a kitchen, living room and bathroom for a medium or long stay. In many cases, with professional management through platforms or companiesand with an increasingly higher price segment that comes to exceed even the thousand euros a month for a room in Barcelona, many times with an almost hotel aspect.
rising prices
The non-tourist rental of rooms has three types of potential user: the history of university students who live together during the school season, people (increasingly) who cannot access a complete home even if they have a job due to the rise in prices, and foreign students or young workers who come to spend a stage in Barcelona and the location prevails. It is a broad audience with very different demands. The first are those who maintain a lowest price threshold in the ads posted on the big portals: from about 300 euros (in flats that are usually not very central) to about 600. But the Rates go up according to zones and conditions, especially with professional management and contracting expenses. Given the growing demand, there are more and more quality options or with more bathrooms, with examples of up to 1.400 euros, for example, if only a couple of people live together.
The last report of photo house on shared homes points to Barcelona as the most expensive city in Spain to rent a room, even current average price of 575 euros, after increasing 25%. Idealistic It placed it a few months ago at 450 euros, after a 14% price increase and with a sharp drop in the available supply. Another report from this month, in this case from the rental platform Spotahomewith leases of more than one month in large cities, also sets the state record for the price of rooms in the Catalan capital, with 606 euros average subscribers, based on their contracts.
Going to the available offer, on portals such as Idealista this week 1,700 of its 2,600 room ads in the city were above 500 euros. Of these, 652 were offered to more than 700 euros with not a few to more than a thousand.
Bearing in mind that the new minimum interprofessional salary is 1,080 euros, even a room becomes a luxury for a mileurista in the city. From Fotocasa, its Director of Studies, María Matos, reflects on the phenomenon: the majority of people who share a flat in big cities are between 18 and 35 years old, but “as their birthday grows, the desire to share to socialize becomes a obligation to distribute expenses, since the increase in the rental price does not allow them to become independent”. Both in the case of those looking for a room, and those who choose to offer it at home because they can’t make ends meet. She believes that “the imposition of having to share housing causes havoc in the development of family nuclei, deprive of privacy to people, so it could even influence birth rates,” he adds. In fact, in Idealista the average age of those who search in the Catalan capital is 34 years.
Reservations without visit and with costs
To give an example of the evolution, in that same portal almost a third of the available offer, 800, are already professionally managed. The logo of the companies or platforms It appears in the advertisements and in the texts (in several languages) many refer to their websites. Each one has its way of remuneration, from a percentage to the equivalent of a monthly payment (as in the flats), despite the fact that some stays will be for a few months and with a high turnover of clients. In some cases, they directly run homes that they own. In other formats, the same person (by his first name) can be seen hiring the ‘beds’ on different floors, sometimes with large forks. In many cases they are difficult to reach by phone and do all communication by email. Some, with headquarters abroad or Madrid.
Expanding operators include Smart Living, which took off in Madrid and is now growing in Barcelona and Valencia. They define themselves as specialized in shared flats, especially for students and “young professionals”. A company spokesperson points out that they both integrate their own portfolio and that of other owners.
Spotahome, the rental ‘market place’ (non-tourist) that was born as a ‘start up’ in 2014 and currently offers (these days) 2,620 room options in the city (in addition to apartments), is based on immediate online leasing without the need for a visit, with the guarantee that the photos are true to life. Payment is not made to the owner until the tenant accesses the room and checks that everything is as he expected, avoiding any fraud, explains a person in charge. They are currently expanding their services, which include advice to owners, including both individuals (who can market the entire house by rooms or just one) and ‘property managers’ with a portfolio of properties. The holders are the ones who decide the price, length of stay and conditions. On their website they promise the owner “maximum profitability in the mid-stay rental“. “Your house will always be full, generating recurring and guaranteed income”, they emphasize, compared to the periods without use that the tourist business can share.
From tourist business to temporary for individual rooms
Some elements are reminiscent of the beginnings of tourist apartments. Almost two decades ago, the first owners who began to operate their homes for days for travelers opened a lucrative melon that lasted for years until the sector was regulated and new licenses were prohibited. The city council had to fight illegality since then, while the more than 9,000 license holders without expiration made (and do) gold and have multiplied the value of their property. But once the law was cheated, and given the impossibility of renting houses or rooms for less than a month (it would be touristic), many made the leap to temporary accommodation (more than a month and as a rule less than a year). They pointed out above all the demand, especially from foreigners who came for work, as a freer, more lucrative and tempting lease than the long-term lease, as long as it does not have price limitations from the Administration or problems of defaults. The new twist is to rent smaller units of space, rooms, which in professionalized cases tend to have an almost hotel-like appearance.