Idealista rental stock in Spain plunges from 80,364 to 68,397 in one month

Rental stock falls 15% in a month: from 80,364 to 68,397 listings

On 29 September, Idealista showed 80,364 rental homes in Spain. By 29 October, the figure had fallen to 68,397. Nearly 12,000 fewer listings in a single month, 15% of the stock gone, according to the daily count that has been updated in this thread. The series is not linear: there are days of tiny rebounds —from 79,440 to 79,430, from 68,824 to 68,614— and days when several hundred listings vanish. The latest figure in the discussion is 68,397.

The question is not just how many flats are left, but why they are disappearing. And on that point, the diagnosis splits in two.

The housing decree as the trigger for the supply pullback

The dominant view in the conversation is that the collapse coincides with tighter rental regulation. People talk about a "Maricarmen decree" (a recent Spanish housing regulation), which, according to the calculation circulating online, would have wiped out 10% of the supply in just a few days. The figure fits the timeline: the bulk of the drop is concentrated in the first three weeks of October.

Barcelona is cited as a precedent. With similar laws passed earlier, the permanent rental supply there is said to have fallen 83% since then, dropping below 700 listings on Idealista, compared with the more than 7,000 still holding up in Madrid. The comparison serves to anticipate the path ahead: Madrid would trinc the same route, just with a delay.

There is a concrete account that illustrates the mechanism. A Barcelona online letting agency, run by a single person and specialising in three- to six-month rentals for foreigners passing through on master's programmes or attending conferences, lost around 40% of its properties under the previous rental law. This week, 80% of the calls it receives are from owners asking to withdraw their flats from the market. Its plan B: retraining into property sales.

Why is the rental supply on Idealista falling?

Because part of the landlord community is pulling their properties out of the residential rental market in the face of tighter regulation and perceived legal uncertainty. That is the explanation that dominates the analysis, but it is not the only one. Against it, it is argued that Idealista's stock never reflected the full market: there are word-of-mouth rentals, ads on lampposts and informal channels that never reach the portal. The count would be a sample, not a census.

The third line of argument points to tourist rentals. In Barcelona, Idealista's breakdown showed 2,228 total listings, of which only 560 were residential and 1,668 seasonal. Tourist housing would have swallowed up residential rentals, and the business would keep growing with more than 100 million visitors a year. The solution proposed from that reading is simple: ban, pursue and fine tourist rentals.

Prices as the backdrop: €2,950 for 75 square metres with no lift

Shrinking supply makes nothing cheaper. A listing for a 75-square-metre third-floor flat with no lift and four bedrooms at €2,950 a month circulates as an example of the absurdity. The ironic comment —"eight people fit in four bedrooms, €360 each, a bargain"— sums up the market's perverse arithmetic: prices hold up because the stock is shrinking.

And it is not a seasonal phenomenon. The answer to those hoping for discounts is blunt: this has been going on for years. The reduction in supply is not a seasonal hiccup, it is a trend that accelerates with every regulatory change.

The judicial route: rejecting evictions over the housing market collapse

The debate crosses into the courts. A judge is said to have peine the door to rejecting evictions, citing the "collapse of the housing market" and "social reality" to prevent the eviction of a flat in the Comunidad de Madrid (the Madrid regional authority) occupied by a vulnerable family. The decision is read as yet another symptom: when the market offers no alternative, the courts start to intervene.

The reaction to this judicial route is harsh. It is argued that the obligation to pay is extinguished by the court's disproportionate delays, and there is sarcasm about the solution being for the judge to house those affected in her own home. The tension between property rights and vulnerability runs through the whole thread.

The emerging scenario: squat or buy

The conclusion that prevails in the final part of the conversation is grim: only two options will remain, squatting or buying. Rentals of whole flats for families and people on average salaries would disappear. The falling supply is not just a number: it is confirmation that the residential rental market is tightening to the point of asphyxiation.

One figure remains unsettling. In a country of 50 million inhabitants, if the count started from 80,000 listings, Valencia alone should have a minimum equivalent available. It does not. And the series keeps falling.

---