Idealista rental listings in Spain fall below 70,000
Idealista's rental stock has dropped from 80,364 to 69,463 listings in under a month, according to a count circulating on a forum. Long-term rental supply is…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Idealista rental listings in Spain fall below 70,000
On 29 September there were 80,364 homes listed for rent on Idealista, according to the count being tracked in a forum thread. On 19 October, 70,922. And on the night of the count, the figure had already broken through the psychological barrier: 69,463 listings. In less than a month, Spain's residential rental showcase would have lost more than ten thousand listings, and the drop doesn't stop when you refresh the page. The series is built by whoever trinc it day after day, figure by figure, and the pattern it describes is as simple as it is uncomfortable: every week fewer long-term flats at market price.
From 80,364 to 69,463: the timeline of a collapse
The start of the tracking sets the benchmark at 80,364 listings on 29 September. From then on, the drip is constant: 80,300, 80,246, 79,612, 79,462, 79,440, 79,430, 79,427, 79,424. The precision of the later figures betrays the method: someone refreshing the search engine several times a day. Then comes the jump: 71,991, 70,922, 70,051, 69,904, 69,743, 69,463. The 70,000 barrier is broken downwards and the thread celebrates it with a smirk.
The question hanging in the air is what exactly that counter measures. It doesn't measure existing homes or occupied homes: it measures listings published as long-term rentals on one specific platform. When the number falls, the property doesn't disappear. It changes category. It moves to seasonal, to rooms or to sale. The stock is still there; what vanishes is the tab.
Why are rental flats disappearing from the listings?
The most repeated diagnosis points to regulation. The law caps rents on residential rentals, and the owner responds by moving the asset to the segment where the cap doesn't apply: seasonal contracts, room rentals, letting to students or outright sale. The result is a long-term supply that shrinks while demand remains intact.
The case of Barcelona is cited as a precedent. Since the city approved its restrictions, permanent rental supply would have fallen by 83%, to below 700 listings, compared with the more than 7,000 that still hold up in Madrid, according to a thread participant. The capital serves as a warning: what already peine in Barcelona is about to happen in the rest of the big cities.
There's a piece of context that qualifies the scarcity narrative: landlords or recipients of rental income from primary residences represent 4.9% of the total population, according to one of the cited sources. With that base, the idea that an army of small landlords is draining the market doesn't hold up well. The counterpoint: anyone arguing that this percentage isn't enough to solve the housing problem has a point from the start, because the bottleneck isn't just supply, it's price.
Rental stock in Málaga and Barcelona: the cases that foreshadow the rest
The collapse isn't uniform. In Málaga, 80% of estate agencies report problems publishing rental flats, and listings are disappearing. In Barcelona, permanent supply has been reduced to a remnant. In Madrid, the figure still holds, but the trend points in the same direction.
The most pessimistic reading holds that the problem will stop being price and become existence. Even if the tenant has money, they won't find anything to rent. The most optimistic trusts that the market will rebalance through buying: if there's no rental, people buy. And that's where the wall appears: financial institutions require 30% of the property's value in savings, two payslips and a permanent contract, according to one participant. The average earner is locked out of both the mortgage and the rental.
With these ingredients, the end of the year should bring an even lower figure. Idealista's counter can't go below zero, that's primary-school arithmetic. But it can reach zero. And zero listings doesn't miccionan a city without rooftops: it means the category has been emptied, the stock has moved to another tab, and anyone looking for a long-term flat at market price will be met with a blank screen.
On 29 September there were 80,364 homes listed for rent on Idealista, according to the count being tracked in a forum thread. On 19 October, 70,922. And on the night of the count, the figure had already broken through the psychological barrier: 69,463 listings. In less than a month, Spain's residential rental showcase would have lost more than ten thousand listings, and the drop doesn't stop when you refresh the page. The series is built by whoever trinc it day after day, figure by figure, and the pattern it describes is as simple as it is uncomfortable: every week fewer long-term flats at market price.
From 80,364 to 69,463: the timeline of a collapse
The start of the tracking sets the benchmark at 80,364 listings on 29 September. From then on, the drip is constant: 80,300, 80,246, 79,612, 79,462, 79,440, 79,430, 79,427, 79,424. The precision of the later figures betrays the method: someone refreshing the search engine several times a day. Then comes the jump: 71,991, 70,922, 70,051, 69,904, 69,743, 69,463. The 70,000 barrier is broken downwards and the thread celebrates it with a smirk.
The question hanging in the air is what exactly that counter measures. It doesn't measure existing homes or occupied homes: it measures listings published as long-term rentals on one specific platform. When the number falls, the property doesn't disappear. It changes category. It moves to seasonal, to rooms or to sale. The stock is still there; what vanishes is the tab.
Why are rental flats disappearing from the listings?
The most repeated diagnosis points to regulation. The law caps rents on residential rentals, and the owner responds by moving the asset to the segment where the cap doesn't apply: seasonal contracts, room rentals, letting to students or outright sale. The result is a long-term supply that shrinks while demand remains intact.
The case of Barcelona is cited as a precedent. Since the city approved its restrictions, permanent rental supply would have fallen by 83%, to below 700 listings, compared with the more than 7,000 that still hold up in Madrid, according to a thread participant. The capital serves as a warning: what already peine in Barcelona is about to happen in the rest of the big cities.
There's a piece of context that qualifies the scarcity narrative: landlords or recipients of rental income from primary residences represent 4.9% of the total population, according to one of the cited sources. With that base, the idea that an army of small landlords is draining the market doesn't hold up well. The counterpoint: anyone arguing that this percentage isn't enough to solve the housing problem has a point from the start, because the bottleneck isn't just supply, it's price.
Rental stock in Málaga and Barcelona: the cases that foreshadow the rest
The collapse isn't uniform. In Málaga, 80% of estate agencies report problems publishing rental flats, and listings are disappearing. In Barcelona, permanent supply has been reduced to a remnant. In Madrid, the figure still holds, but the trend points in the same direction.
The most pessimistic reading holds that the problem will stop being price and become existence. Even if the tenant has money, they won't find anything to rent. The most optimistic trusts that the market will rebalance through buying: if there's no rental, people buy. And that's where the wall appears: financial institutions require 30% of the property's value in savings, two payslips and a permanent contract, according to one participant. The average earner is locked out of both the mortgage and the rental.
With these ingredients, the end of the year should bring an even lower figure. Idealista's counter can't go below zero, that's primary-school arithmetic. But it can reach zero. And zero listings doesn't miccionan a city without rooftops: it means the category has been emptied, the stock has moved to another tab, and anyone looking for a long-term flat at market price will be met with a blank screen.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (427 replies).
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