Madrid rental listings drop by 2,417 on the day of the decree
According to a tally circulating online, rental listings in the city of Madrid fell from 11,815 to 9,398 on the first day of the decree, a 20.46% drop. Over 20 days the figure kept…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Madrid rental listings drop by 2,417 on the day of the decree
A 100-square-metre flat in a privileged location, two new homes on the market, and a 90-year-old owner who called the estate agency to halt the rental and have them valued for sale. That scene, described by a participant in the debate in early October 2026, sums up what, according to his account, peine to the Madrid rental market as soon as Royal Decree-laws 26/2026 and 27/2026 were announced: listings began disappearing by the thousands, and homes that were going to be rented out went up for sale or into a drawer.
The numbers jotted down day by day in the city of Madrid, according to a tally circulating in the thread, are telling. Before the decree, the Idealista portal showed **11,815 rental listings** in the capital. On the first day of the decree, the figure had fallen to **9,398**, **20.46% lower**, according to that same tally. That is **2,417 fewer listings** in just a few hours. The question that brings many readers to this topic — how many flats have been withdrawn from the rental market — has an answer according to that source: around 2,400 in the city of Madrid on the first day, and the decline continued.
From 9,400 to 8,190: the fall that didn't stop
What peine on the first day was not an isolated flash, according to the tracking published as it went along. The rental housing stock in the municipality of Madrid kept tracing a slope that never stopped: from the initial **9,400**, it fell to **8,442** on 15 October, to **8,388** shortly after, then **8,312**, **8,267** and finally **8,190**. In 20 days, the rental supply in the city of Madrid had shed roughly an additional **12%**. The starting figure of 11,815 listings was already far behind.
The trend was not uniform across neighbourhoods or portals, but the direction was the same in the tallies being published. In Barcelona, where similar measures had been in force for over a year, the rental stock was a mere **747 homes**, compared with the **6,012** Madrid still showed at the same moment, according to the data provided in the thread. The comparison was used as an argument: what had all but disappeared in the Catalan capital was only just beginning in Madrid.
Some argue that part of the drop is seasonal or administrative, simply listings rotating as flats are rented and removed. The most sceptical calculation points out that **2,000 flats rented in a single day** is a figure impossible to swallow for a market that had already been running at a far slower pace. The most pessimistic scenario starts from a different premise: they are not being rented, they are being withdrawn.
Why are flats being pulled from the rental market?
The reason most often cited in the debate is legal uncertainty. The decrees — especially the second one, the one linked to Sumar — introduce caps on rent increases, eviction bans and restrictions that many landlords read as a loss of control over their asset. The practical consequence, according to those who hold this view, is that some landlords prefer to sell rather than rent. The case of the 90-year-old father-in-law who renovated a ruin and turned it into two flats is presented as an example of that pattern.
The argument most often heard from defenders of the measure is that the underlying problem is a lack of structural supply and that intervention corrects abuses. Critics counter with the data: if supply is withdrawn faster than it is built, prices don't fall, they rise. And if flats that were going to be rented are put up for sale, the buyer may turn them into tourist accommodation or simply not rent them out, shrinking the long-term rental stock even further.
The precedent already written
Even if the decrees were voted down in Congress — and at the time of the discussion they were still pending approval — the damage to the market had already been done, according to the dominant reading in the thread. The image of **absolute legal uncertainty** and zero respect for private property scares off foreign and domestic investors alike, they argue. Who is going to invest in renovating or building homes with precedents like these? The question is repeated on every page of the tracking.
The comparison with Catalonia is no coincidence. There, the measures have been in place longer and the result, according to the data cited in the debate, is a residual rental market. The parallel with the procés was used as a warning: first the measure is applauded, then the departure of companies is celebrated, and in the end the market is left with no players. The sarracena drawn is that there is always someone willing to applaud while the stock evaporates.
The effect on prices and tenants
The immediate consequence for anyone looking for a rental is less supply and more competition for what remains, according to participants. The flats still listed become objects of dispute, and the pressure on price doesn't disappear: it shifts. Some point out that many of the withdrawn flats were already negotiating with a specific tenant, who has now lost the home they were about to close on. The ultimate loser is not the speculator, but the person who needs a roof over their head.
The calculation made about the average landlord is revealing, according to one participant. An 84-square-metre flat with three bedrooms, garage and storage room in Zaragoza, rented for **850 euros a month**, leaves the landlord — after community fees (**73 euros**), insurance (**37 and 16 euros**), special assessments and repairs — a thin return that any rate rise or rent freeze turns into a loss. With inflation running at around **8-10% a year**, a frozen rent is a guaranteed loss, he argues.
Construction as the backdrop
The debate about supply doesn't end with rentals. Building today costs around **2,000 euros per square metre**, according to the figures being cited, which makes a 100-square-metre flat unviable for under **280,000 euros** even in the most remote village, according to one participant. Planning regulations — minimum sizes of 40 square metres in the Community of Madrid, for example — rule out cheaper options such as modular construction, he argues. Cheap housing hasn't existed since the days of the peseta, and inflation is no joke.
The conclusion that prevails, according to critics, is that the housing problem is above all a political decision. Of past governments, current ones and those to come. Meanwhile, the rental stock in Madrid keeps moving according to the tally: **8,190** listings and falling. The unsettling figure is not the 20% drop on the first day. It's that nobody knows where the floor is.
A 100-square-metre flat in a privileged location, two new homes on the market, and a 90-year-old owner who called the estate agency to halt the rental and have them valued for sale. That scene, described by a participant in the debate in early October 2026, sums up what, according to his account, peine to the Madrid rental market as soon as Royal Decree-laws 26/2026 and 27/2026 were announced: listings began disappearing by the thousands, and homes that were going to be rented out went up for sale or into a drawer.
The numbers jotted down day by day in the city of Madrid, according to a tally circulating in the thread, are telling. Before the decree, the Idealista portal showed **11,815 rental listings** in the capital. On the first day of the decree, the figure had fallen to **9,398**, **20.46% lower**, according to that same tally. That is **2,417 fewer listings** in just a few hours. The question that brings many readers to this topic — how many flats have been withdrawn from the rental market — has an answer according to that source: around 2,400 in the city of Madrid on the first day, and the decline continued.
From 9,400 to 8,190: the fall that didn't stop
What peine on the first day was not an isolated flash, according to the tracking published as it went along. The rental housing stock in the municipality of Madrid kept tracing a slope that never stopped: from the initial **9,400**, it fell to **8,442** on 15 October, to **8,388** shortly after, then **8,312**, **8,267** and finally **8,190**. In 20 days, the rental supply in the city of Madrid had shed roughly an additional **12%**. The starting figure of 11,815 listings was already far behind.
The trend was not uniform across neighbourhoods or portals, but the direction was the same in the tallies being published. In Barcelona, where similar measures had been in force for over a year, the rental stock was a mere **747 homes**, compared with the **6,012** Madrid still showed at the same moment, according to the data provided in the thread. The comparison was used as an argument: what had all but disappeared in the Catalan capital was only just beginning in Madrid.
Some argue that part of the drop is seasonal or administrative, simply listings rotating as flats are rented and removed. The most sceptical calculation points out that **2,000 flats rented in a single day** is a figure impossible to swallow for a market that had already been running at a far slower pace. The most pessimistic scenario starts from a different premise: they are not being rented, they are being withdrawn.
Why are flats being pulled from the rental market?
The reason most often cited in the debate is legal uncertainty. The decrees — especially the second one, the one linked to Sumar — introduce caps on rent increases, eviction bans and restrictions that many landlords read as a loss of control over their asset. The practical consequence, according to those who hold this view, is that some landlords prefer to sell rather than rent. The case of the 90-year-old father-in-law who renovated a ruin and turned it into two flats is presented as an example of that pattern.
The argument most often heard from defenders of the measure is that the underlying problem is a lack of structural supply and that intervention corrects abuses. Critics counter with the data: if supply is withdrawn faster than it is built, prices don't fall, they rise. And if flats that were going to be rented are put up for sale, the buyer may turn them into tourist accommodation or simply not rent them out, shrinking the long-term rental stock even further.
The precedent already written
Even if the decrees were voted down in Congress — and at the time of the discussion they were still pending approval — the damage to the market had already been done, according to the dominant reading in the thread. The image of **absolute legal uncertainty** and zero respect for private property scares off foreign and domestic investors alike, they argue. Who is going to invest in renovating or building homes with precedents like these? The question is repeated on every page of the tracking.
The comparison with Catalonia is no coincidence. There, the measures have been in place longer and the result, according to the data cited in the debate, is a residual rental market. The parallel with the procés was used as a warning: first the measure is applauded, then the departure of companies is celebrated, and in the end the market is left with no players. The sarracena drawn is that there is always someone willing to applaud while the stock evaporates.
The effect on prices and tenants
The immediate consequence for anyone looking for a rental is less supply and more competition for what remains, according to participants. The flats still listed become objects of dispute, and the pressure on price doesn't disappear: it shifts. Some point out that many of the withdrawn flats were already negotiating with a specific tenant, who has now lost the home they were about to close on. The ultimate loser is not the speculator, but the person who needs a roof over their head.
The calculation made about the average landlord is revealing, according to one participant. An 84-square-metre flat with three bedrooms, garage and storage room in Zaragoza, rented for **850 euros a month**, leaves the landlord — after community fees (**73 euros**), insurance (**37 and 16 euros**), special assessments and repairs — a thin return that any rate rise or rent freeze turns into a loss. With inflation running at around **8-10% a year**, a frozen rent is a guaranteed loss, he argues.
Construction as the backdrop
The debate about supply doesn't end with rentals. Building today costs around **2,000 euros per square metre**, according to the figures being cited, which makes a 100-square-metre flat unviable for under **280,000 euros** even in the most remote village, according to one participant. Planning regulations — minimum sizes of 40 square metres in the Community of Madrid, for example — rule out cheaper options such as modular construction, he argues. Cheap housing hasn't existed since the days of the peseta, and inflation is no joke.
The conclusion that prevails, according to critics, is that the housing problem is above all a political decision. Of past governments, current ones and those to come. Meanwhile, the rental stock in Madrid keeps moving according to the tally: **8,190** listings and falling. The unsettling figure is not the 20% drop on the first day. It's that nobody knows where the floor is.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (529 replies).
More summaries
-
Renting in Spain makes no sense: just €500 per €100,000 of property
A forum user argues that rental yields in Spain hover around 3%, below inflation, which explains the collapse in the supply of rental homes.
-
Colau says she left her flat of 15 years because she couldn't afford it
Ada Colau says she is leaving the flat where she lived for 15 years because one salary wasn't enough; Newtral puts her salary as mayor at €96,000 gross
-
Town in León, Spain, to allow 52 new detached homes for incoming families
The Santa María del Páramo council in León has approved the urbanisation project for sector U1 'La Barrera': 52 single-family homes with a base budget of 966,000 euros.
-
Pedro Sánchez: legitimacy, coalition deals and wear at Spain's helm
Pedro Sánchez marks eight years at La Moncloa without winning an election. His legitimacy, coalition deals and political wear are the focus of economic and political analysis.
-
Cáceres council in Spain allegedly paid taxis to send vulnerable people to Catalonia
RAC1 reports that a town council in the province of Cáceres paid for taxis to take people facing social exclusion to Mataró. The case opens a debate over who bears the social cost.
-
Banni Festival: India's stick-fighting ritual that kills up to three people a year
In Devaragattu, India, up to 11 villages clash with sticks every year, leaving between one and three people dead. How the festival works and its human toll.