2023-09-15 04:03:59
For many children, their parents’ habitual residence is the most valuable asset they receive as an inheritance. To this, depending on the economic level of each family, the second home on the beach, in the countryside or in the town can be added. Although some heirs decide to keep the property, renovate it and use it, many others, especially when there are several siblings, prefer to sell it and share the profits equally or rent it out to have income each month. In the Spanish real estate market, where new housing is scarce, the fact that inherited properties go up for sale or for rent contributes to reducing the tension to which prices have been subjected for some years. Their weight is such that inherited homes currently account for 17% of the supply available on the market for both sale and rent, a percentage two points higher than in 2022, according to a study by Fotocasa Research on inherited homes in Spain.
However, owners do not opt to rent to the same extent as they do selling. Heirs represent 23% of those who sell a property, a percentage two points higher than the 21% in 2022 and identical to that of 2021. However, among landlords there are only 11% of Spaniards who have inherited the object home. of the operation. “These data clearly indicate that homes received through succession have more outlets on the sales side than on the rental side,” says Fotocasa.
The real estate portal emphasizes that given the shortage of housing stock, it is positive that inherited homes come onto the market, both for purchase and rental. However, Fotocasa points out that “the greatest tension” occurs in the leasing, “precisely where one of the most significant changes occurs with respect to last year”, as the heirs move away from problems derived from the rental and prefer to put it up for sale the home, thus losing “a great way to expand the rental supply and even cause it to be reduced, if the home was rented and now the new owner wants to sell it.”
“The public administration, together with the private sector, must work to create a climate of stability, with legal certainty so that the owner has guarantees when renting that home, instead of working in the opposite direction with inappropriate regulations such as the Housing Law,” defends María Matos, Director of Studies and spokesperson for Fotocasa.
Reasons to sell the inherited home
According to the real estate portal’s study, there are two main reasons why heirs want to sell instead of rent the homes received by inheritance and they are reasons that have led an opposite trend since 2020: personal reasons and avoiding problems in rent collection. While personal reasons have lost 18 points since 2020, going from 50% then to 32% now, not wanting problems with rent payment increases by 13 points, from 14% in 2020 to 27% in 2023. In this way, the gap between both reasons becomes 36 points in 2020, to only 5 points in 2023.
These main reasons are followed by two others with a percentage of 16%: the impossibility of assuming the costs of inherited housing and the fact that there are no tax benefits that compensate for the risks. Another reason, with 15% of responses, is their interest in buying another home. “Sellers who have inherited are different from the rest because, among their reasons for selling, they give more importance to potential rental problems and the difficulties of assuming the costs generated by a home,” says Fotocasa.
Like last year, the high price and the work of the real estate agencies constitute the main difficulties for the sale by the selling heirs. In both cases, the percentage of those who point out both problems reaches 22%, and in both cases this is higher than those registered in 2022, when they were 20% and 17%, respectively. In third position, the location of the inherited property is alleged as a difficulty for the sale, a circumstance that, however, drops one point in relation to 2022, going from 15% to 14%.
Although these arguments remain relatively constant over time, Fotocasa warns that distrust of potential tenants has gained ground, reaching 11%, two points more than a year ago, while the high number of offers has lost strength, from 15%. % to 13%.
Reasons for renting inherited housing
For its part, there are three main reasons for renting instead of selling the inherited home: its use as a source of income (45%); prefer that it be occupied (38%) and the profitability offered by renting (31%). However, Fotocasa observes in the three reasons cited a “notable decrease” compared to the previous year, especially marked in the preference for having the property occupied rather than empty. Comparing the heir landlords with the rest of the landlords, the only relevant difference is that the former give less weight to rent as a source of income (45% compared to 62%).
The main obstacle for landlord heirs when renting the home is distrust of potential tenants (36%), followed by the work of real estate agencies and agencies (24%), the availability of time to show the home (18%). ) and the high number of offers (12%). Of these reasons, the one that experiences the most powerful increase is that attributed to the action of real estate and agencies, which has risen in the last year from 11% to 24%.
#offer #buy #rent