ARCHIVED - Residential property rental prices in Spain have risen above 50% in the last five years

Valencia records the biggest increase, with 68% compared to 2015

The demand for rental property in Spain is constant, the domestic market remaining strong due to the limited supply of available properties, a lack of investment into new constructions since the collapse of the property market in 2010 and the subsequent liquidity issues faced by developers resulting in only minimal investment into new housing projects during the last ten years.

In truth, the developers have only really started to see renewed interest in financing new developments in the last three-four years after Spain emerged from a bruising economic crisis in which property prices plummeted and the level of unemploymnt was high.

As the economy has recovered and job prospects improved, families have once again started to look at the possibility of moving or even buying their own homes, but the rentals market has remained strong, with availability exceeding demand.

This high demand and scarcity of supply has caused a growth of more than 50% in rental prices since 2015, according to a study by Fotocasa, which shows that the average price per square meter was 7.13 euros five years ago, but by June 2020 had risen to 10.82 euros.

The Valencia Region, Catalonia, the Madrid Region and the Canary Islands are, in that order, the four Spanish regions that have most increased the rental price of their houses since June 2015. With all of them exceeding 50% (the country's average is 52 %), the two eastern areas are the ones that lead the ranking with 68%(Valencia) and 60% (Catalonia), respectively.

However, Madrid is the most expensive region with a cost per square meter of 15.30 euros.

The capital has experienced, in total, a growth of 57%, very similar to that of the Canary Islands (with 56%). After them, the Balearic Islands (which only Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country surpass in general price) closes the classification of the five regions with an increase of 49% to go from 8.43 to 12.55 euros.

Valencia is the city with the highest increase (77%), followed by Murcia (58%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (52%).