Valencia Rent Surpasses €1,000, Requiring Triple Income
Spain's tourist housing grows 9.2% to 340,424 units, while Valencia rents exceed €1,000, demanding triple income.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Valencia Rent Surpasses €1,000, Requiring Triple Income
How much do you need to earn in Valencia to sign a rental contract? According to the message opening this debate, rents exceed €1,000 and require triple income. In a sixth-floor apartment near Avenida de la Plata, in the Monteolivete neighborhood, the elevator announces in four languages — Spanish, English, French, and German — not to exceed three people. The sign is not for residents. It is for foreign visitors entering and leaving tourist apartments in the same building.
The Valencian Community, Second Region in Tourist Apartments
The numbers handled by the sector show pressure that is not distributed equally. In Spain, tourist housing increased by 9.2% in the last year to total 340,424 apartments. The Valencian Community is the second region in this modality, with nearly 60,000 apartments.
In Valencia city, the most common comparison is 60,000 tourist apartments versus 10,000 residential ones. Other sector sources place the residential housing stock offered at 63,320 units. The exact magnitude is debatable. The direction of the phenomenon, much less so.
How Much Does Tourist Rent Contribute to Shortages?
Here the narrative breaks. According to cited calculations, tourist apartments represent about 1.3% of total housing in the country and do not reach 10% of households living by rent, a pool estimated at 3.4 million in 2019. A stock of that size does not explain why rents have skyrocketed.
The conclusion drawn by much of the sector is uncomfortable: the problem is not just the apartment converted into a tourist apartment, but the apartment that directly disappears from the residential market. It is withdrawn, left empty, or sold. Each unit leaving the market pushes the price of the rest higher.
Legal Uncertainty and the Housing Law: Withdrawn Supply
The most repeated argument among small owners is risk. Not the loss of one month's rent, but the loss of the home for years. The scenario described is always the same: a tenant who stops paying, an eviction that drags on, and an owner who continues to pay property tax, water, electricity, and waste for the property while the matter is resolved.
This is compounded by a detail that, according to the debate, is often overlooked: if the tenant earns the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), which is unattachable, and has no assets, the unpaid debt is difficult to recover. The owner assumes the non-payment without a way to recoup it. With this outlook, some argue that the housing law has acted as an accelerator, not a brake.
Against this weighs the fact that the diagnosis is not new nor exclusive to this law. Other structural causes are pointed out: construction limits, general impoverishment, and a stubborn fact — everyone wants to live in the same place, which makes anything more expensive.
From €400 per Month in 2013 to €750 in Valencia City
The temporal comparison is more helpful than any soothing words. In 2013, in Valencia city, three or four 'For Sale' signs were seen on the portals of almost all medium-sized buildings, according to the account of a forum user. Bank offices offered brochures with two or three hundred apartments for sale, and rents were €400 per month in neighborhoods outside the center. That was before real estate portfolios were packaged and ended up in the hands of investment funds.
Today, ads for €750 in Valencia city are presented as the reasonable part of the market. And the requirement accompanying any contract, according to the message opening the debate, is triple income.
The Effect Does Not Stay in the City Center
The phenomenon is not exclusive to historic quarters. In Benidorm, a developer was selling new-build apartments while other buyers were reselling them: purchases of €300,000 that hit the market for €350,000 before handing over the keys. In between, those who only wanted to continue living in their area are pushed to the periphery or beyond.
Meanwhile, the public response remains a gesture. It is discussed what is regulated, who pays the non-payment, and what happens to those who take shelter, but the waiting list for housing does not shorten. Fine irony: the only text translated into four languages is the elevator sign.
Key Data of the Issue
How much do you need to earn in Valencia to sign a rental contract? According to the message opening this debate, rents exceed €1,000 and require triple income. In a sixth-floor apartment near Avenida de la Plata, in the Monteolivete neighborhood, the elevator announces in four languages — Spanish, English, French, and German — not to exceed three people. The sign is not for residents. It is for foreign visitors entering and leaving tourist apartments in the same building.
The Valencian Community, Second Region in Tourist Apartments
The numbers handled by the sector show pressure that is not distributed equally. In Spain, tourist housing increased by 9.2% in the last year to total 340,424 apartments. The Valencian Community is the second region in this modality, with nearly 60,000 apartments.
In Valencia city, the most common comparison is 60,000 tourist apartments versus 10,000 residential ones. Other sector sources place the residential housing stock offered at 63,320 units. The exact magnitude is debatable. The direction of the phenomenon, much less so.
How Much Does Tourist Rent Contribute to Shortages?
Here the narrative breaks. According to cited calculations, tourist apartments represent about 1.3% of total housing in the country and do not reach 10% of households living by rent, a pool estimated at 3.4 million in 2019. A stock of that size does not explain why rents have skyrocketed.
The conclusion drawn by much of the sector is uncomfortable: the problem is not just the apartment converted into a tourist apartment, but the apartment that directly disappears from the residential market. It is withdrawn, left empty, or sold. Each unit leaving the market pushes the price of the rest higher.
Legal Uncertainty and the Housing Law: Withdrawn Supply
The most repeated argument among small owners is risk. Not the loss of one month's rent, but the loss of the home for years. The scenario described is always the same: a tenant who stops paying, an eviction that drags on, and an owner who continues to pay property tax, water, electricity, and waste for the property while the matter is resolved.
This is compounded by a detail that, according to the debate, is often overlooked: if the tenant earns the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), which is unattachable, and has no assets, the unpaid debt is difficult to recover. The owner assumes the non-payment without a way to recoup it. With this outlook, some argue that the housing law has acted as an accelerator, not a brake.
Against this weighs the fact that the diagnosis is not new nor exclusive to this law. Other structural causes are pointed out: construction limits, general impoverishment, and a stubborn fact — everyone wants to live in the same place, which makes anything more expensive.
From €400 per Month in 2013 to €750 in Valencia City
The temporal comparison is more helpful than any soothing words. In 2013, in Valencia city, three or four 'For Sale' signs were seen on the portals of almost all medium-sized buildings, according to the account of a forum user. Bank offices offered brochures with two or three hundred apartments for sale, and rents were €400 per month in neighborhoods outside the center. That was before real estate portfolios were packaged and ended up in the hands of investment funds.
Today, ads for €750 in Valencia city are presented as the reasonable part of the market. And the requirement accompanying any contract, according to the message opening the debate, is triple income.
The Effect Does Not Stay in the City Center
The phenomenon is not exclusive to historic quarters. In Benidorm, a developer was selling new-build apartments while other buyers were reselling them: purchases of €300,000 that hit the market for €350,000 before handing over the keys. In between, those who only wanted to continue living in their area are pushed to the periphery or beyond.
Meanwhile, the public response remains a gesture. It is discussed what is regulated, who pays the non-payment, and what happens to those who take shelter, but the waiting list for housing does not shorten. Fine irony: the only text translated into four languages is the elevator sign.
Key Data of the Issue
- Tourist Housing in Spain: 340,424, 9.2% more in the last year.
- Valencian Community: nearly 60,000 tourist apartments, second region in the country.
- Valencia City: 60,000 tourist apartments versus 10,000 residential ones, according to cited data.
- Rents of €400 per month in Valencia city neighborhoods in 2013, according to a forum user's account.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (330 replies).
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