Spanish rental prices fall further

Thursday 16th February 2012

The average cost of renting a home in Spain fell last year as rental prices depreciated in 77% of Spain’s primary rental markets, the latest to data from Idealista.com and the Public Rental Company (SPA) show.

The greatest rental price decline was recorded in Toledo by 8.7%, followed by a 6.8% drop in Oviedo. In Spain’s largest cities of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia rents fell by 3.1%, 1.3% and 4% respectively.  

However, rents actually increased in Lleida, Bilbao and Alicante rentals, rising 11.2%, 4.2% and 4.1% respectively.

These rental price declines follow on from falls in 2010, suggesting that Spanish homes are becoming cheaper to rent, as well as buy.

Figures also supplied by Idealista.com reveal that the average resale price of a property in Spain depreciated by in January 2012 compared to the same month last year.

The figures provided by the Spanish property portal show that January 2012 was the worst month since the Spanish housing crisis started in 2008.

On a month-on-month basis, asking prices of homes in the idealista.com database fell by 1.9% to an average price of €2,045sqm (£1,712sqm).

It represents the biggest fall in asking prices since idealista.com started publishing the index before the property crash got underway in 2008.

On a monthly basis, prices fell the most in Castille La Mancha (-2.3%), followed by The Balearics, Asturias and Andalucia (-2.1%).