The Evolution of Room Offers in Shared Flats: From a 45% Decline to a 34% Surge

From falling 45% to skyrocketing 34%. It is the evolution of the offer of rooms in a shared flat in a year, a booming phenomenon throughout the country encouraged by its new role, being a lifeguard for many Spanish households that the rise of the Euribor has taken away their sleep: an update of their mortgage can imply that they start paying up to 300 euros more per month on average.

It is almost the average price for a room in a shared apartment in our country, according to Idealista. The 350 euros that are requested for a room they solve the economic tetris of those mortgaged at a variable rate; also from those tenants who have seen how in one year rents have risen by 9.3%, a historical ceiling that makes subleasing flourish.

They are the two major responsible for the abrupt change in trend and rise in room rent, says Francisco Iñareta, spokesman for Idealista. In his analysis, he remarks that it is not contradictory that, in a time when the supply of rental housing falls, the supply of rooms rises.

[El Euríbor continúa sin tocar máximos: seguirá subiendo al ritmo del BCE aunque empieza a estabilizarse]

And it is not because, in the current economic context, the shared flats market has become a way of supplementary income for families, either to pay rental income or to meet more complex mortgage obligations as a result of the Euribor, that is already above 4%.

It was precisely the latter that led Rafaela Martín and Javier Murillo, two owners, to open their houses to tenants in the last year.

“I thought about it because I have a little girl”

Martín made the decision to rent in February, when the feared increase in his mortgage, signed for twenty years, was confirmed. The monthly payment increased by 195 eurosa strong escalation: until then I paid 400 euros.

Separated and with a five-year-old daughter in charge, without relatives to help her raise her and without being able to afford caregivers, she has a part-time job with which she enter 560 euros net per month.

[Sube el esfuerzo para pagar la hipoteca: en Barcelona, Madrid y Málaga habría que destinar más del 45% de renta]

“It was unsustainable”, summarizes EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia. The option of renting a room in her apartment, about 80 square meters and three rooms, immediately crossed her mind, although the requirements were carefully considered by her daughter.

“I had no other alternative, but I was very demanding. I looked for a woman, older,” he explains. she has now a 65-year-old tenant, charged 250 euros with expenses included. “I told her that I did not want to see her as a tenant, but as part of her family. It is true that it is strange, it is an invasion of my private space, but the human being adapts to everything,” she says.

Murillo, a 35-year-old owner who in 2021 signed his 30-year mortgage and a interest of 0.99% plus Euribor. It has already had two semi-annual upward revisions: pay now 260 euros more a month.

“I considered renting as soon as I saw that the Euribor was beginning to rise, at the end of September. It is not only that the fee has increased, it is that I also have a loan for reform,” he details this newspaper.

[El gasto en alquiler de las familias españolas sube un 28,7% en la última década y supera los 1.000€ de media]

Had it not been for these increases, he assures that I would never have rented one of its three rooms. Now he does not rule out having a second tenant if the mortgage reference continues to rise. for now enter 250 euros for a room in his house. He admits that he was “picky” in choosing a tenant, assuming they weren’t students and wanted a long-term lease.

The experience has been good, but if the Euribor collapsed tomorrow “the experiment would end”. He bought his house for 113,000 euros, and is still somewhat perplexed by the increase in his installments. “If my apartment is cheap and this has raised me, whoever has a bigger mortgage, how much do they pay now?” He wonders.

“It goes against the market”

The rise in room rent is a trend that has been noticed for months in Alquiler Seguro. In addition to owners and tenants who have seen it as extra income, there is also another group of owners who rented out their entire apartment and who, after the Housing Law came into force, preferred to rent rooms to avoid its effects.

All together they have ended up forming the ideal springboard for renting rooms, on which the president of Rent Insurance, Antonio Carroza, alert. “In the end this goes against the market, there have to be rooms for rent, but it can’t be the only thing“.

Although for now, he admits, “the demand for rent is so high that any option is fine“. And it is that if the rooms are an option for extra income for those who open their house, for the future tenant it is practically the only thing they can pay given the escalation in rental prices for an entire apartment.

What does this announce? That there is room for the rooms to become more expensive. A basic rule: when demand increases, the price rises. With an August in which students and workers are looking for rooms that in some cases go up to 630 euros, a complex path is looming.

Where has the offer increased the most?

In the last year, the supply of rooms has grown in all the provincial capitals, except in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where they have fallen by 31%.

The biggest rise has been in Castellón, where they have grown by 156%. It is followed by Almería, where it has grown by 98%, and Alicante (81%), Lleida (77%), Albacete (68%) or Murcia (67%) somewhat lower.

In Barcelona the increase was 63%Meanwhile in Madrid has remained in only one 10% more. The smallest increases are those experienced by Vitoria (1%), León (5%) and Palencia (5%).

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