Tag: tourist rentals

Carmena to Outlaw 95% of Madrid’s Tourist Apartments

27 July 2018 – Expansión

The days are numbered for tourist apartments in the centre of Madrid. Yesterday, the Town Hall of Madrid gave the green light to legislation that will put a limit on holiday rentals: 90 days or three months, is the maximum term that a person may rent their home for those purposes. From day 91 onwards, owners will need to have a commercial lodging licence, just like hotels.

Yesterday, the Spanish capital’s Governing Body approved the Special Plan for the Regulation of the Use of Lodgings, which will apply to the city’s most central neighbourhoods. The plan is expected to enter into force at the beginning of 2019, after being approved by the plenary session in October.

The Town Hall led by the mayor Manuela Carmena is also going to prohibit the operation of all homes destined to tourist rental that do not have an independent entrance, like in the case of hotels. According to the Town Hall, with that requirement, “95% of homes that operate as tourist apartments will no longer be able to do so”.

“Specifically, the affected radius will span 52.7 km, distributed in three concentric rings, depending on the massification of the ads. According to the Town Hall, in the rest of the municipality, “the existing legislation will be maintained”. Madrid is, in fact, the European capital where the number of adverts on these platforms has grown by the most, up by 67% in 2017 with respect to 2016, according to a report from Colliers International.

With this legislation, Madrid’s Town Hall is opening a new chapter in the fight between public administrations and tourist apartments. Its intention is to outlaw almost all of the tourist apartments that are advertised on platforms such as Airbnb in the centre of the city.

The prohibition is tacit. The trick is that 95% of the homes advertised on these platforms in the capital do not have an independent entrance. That limitation will only exist in the case of homes that are leased for more than three months. The 90-day limit draws a line between what is considered a home for tourist use and a property in the collaborative economy.

Obtaining a licence is not going to be easy. It will be subject to zoning, following in the footsteps of cities such as Barcelona. Once the Special Plan comes into force, it will not be possible to change the use of a home located within the inner two rings from residential to tertiary, given that those properties account for the majority of the regulated and unregulated tourist supply. Together with this new plan, the Town Hall has approved a moratorium that prohibits the granting of tourist licences of any kind for one year.

Putting a cap on rents

The objective of the plan is to preserve residential use in the central areas of the city that, with the tourist boom and rise of online platforms, are seeing rising rental prices.

In this vein, the Town Hall wants to establish maximum rental prices. To that end, and as it already did in the case of the request for the tourist tax, the delegate for Sustainable Urban Development, José Manuel Calvo, yesterday asked Sanchez’s Governments for the necessary powers.

Original story: Expansión (by I. Benedito)

Translation: Carmel Drake

None of the Homes on Mallorca’s Playa de Palma May be Let to Tourists

24 July 2018 – El Mundo

None of the homes, be they houses or apartments, on Playa de Palma may be let for tourist use, according to an announcement made today by the Councillor for Urban Planning, José Hila.

The councillor explained that the restriction follows the decision taken by the Govern’s Balearic Environmental Commission to declare the entire Arenal-Playa de Palma area a “mature” tourist zone.

The municipal government was planning to allow regulated tourist rentals in detached family homes on Playa de Palma, but the ruling from the Commission has put an end to that possibility.

Hila recalled that the urban nucleus of Palma has been declared a unique area and so there, only the holiday rental of detached homes will be permitted, as had been announced several weeks ago.

“We have calculated that right now there are around 23,000 homes susceptible to being rented out, equivalent to 12% of all of the homes in the Ciutat”, said Hila.

On the other hand, the Balearic Environmental Commission has also ordered that homes located on unprotected rural land and those in the airport area must adhere to the Consell of Mallorca’s Tourist Area Intervention Plan (PIAT).

The councillor highlighted that the responsibility of the Cort in terms of tourist rentals has been to establish the zones, but that if any resident is aware of illegal practices then he or she just report it to the Ministry of Tourism, which is the competent body for matters of infringement.

All of these agreements will have to be endorsed by the Government in the coming days and will enter into force once they have been published in the BOIB.

Original story: El Mundo 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palma de Mallorca to Ban All Tourist Apartments From July

24 April 2018 – El País

From July onwards, homeowners in Palma, on the Balearic Island of Mallorca, will not be allowed to rent out their apartments to tourists. The capital of the popular Mediterranean destination has adopted a pioneering measure, which will see the definitive prohibition of tourist flats right across the city. The local government team – a leftist alliance between the Socialist Party (PSOE), the local group Més per Mallorca and the anti-austerity Podemos – has taken this decision after commissioning several studies on the matter, which revealed that the supply of unlicensed tourist flats increased by 50% between 2015 and 2017 to reach 20,000 beds across the city. In Palma, which is Spain’s eighth-largest city by population, only 645 properties used for short-term vacation rentals have proper licenses.

The government team will approve initial holiday rental zoning plans at a meeting on Thursday, which will then be subjected to public scrutiny before being put to a final vote at a council session in July. At that point, tourists seeking this kind of accommodation will no longer be allowed to rent apartments in multi-family residential housing. Instead, they will only be able to stay in detached, single-family homes, which are being left outside the ban. Yet even these properties will be off limits if they are located on protected rural land, near the airport, or in non-residential areas such as industrial estates.

The move follows a reform of tourism legislation by the regional parliament of the Balearic Islands in August last year. That reform banned vacation rentals in apartments but left it up to local authorities to decide which neighbourhoods to apply it in. In the end, the city of Palma has decided to consider the entire municipality a “single zone” and so the ban will apply in all parts of town. The decision is meant “to protect residents,” said mayor Antoni Noguera.

Studies commissioned by city officials show that 48% of tourist apartments are offered for seven to eight months of the year, meaning they are not available for long-term residential rentals. “There is a parallel between the evolution of vacation rentals and the rise in rental prices,” said José Hila, the local chief of city planning. Rent in Palma has soared by 40% in recent years, making it the second most expensive Spanish city after Barcelona for residents who rent.

“Tourist accommodation affects the makeup of buildings and neighbourhoods, and it also affects social harmony,” said Hila. A report by the Citizen Ombudsman’s Office shows a rise in the number of complaints filed by residents due to problems with tourists who use these apartments, typically related to noise. There were 42 complaints in 2014 and 192 in 2017.

Pioneering initiative

Mayor Noguera is convinced that this measure, which is pioneering in Spain, will set the standard to be followed by other cities. “Palma is a bold and decisive city. We have agreed this on the basis of the general interest, and we believe that it will create a trend in other cities when they see that finding a balance is key.” said the mayor. “All European cities are being transformed from one day to the next by this type of offer,” said planning chief Hila.

Currently, in the Balearic capital, there is a supply of around 11,000 tourist rental beds, of which 645 have licences, all for family homes. Before the new regional legislation was approved in August, the number of beds amounted to 20,000 but the high fines established by the law – of up to €400,000 – led to the withdrawal of adverts from users of many of the large platforms (…).

Original story: El País (by Lucía Bohórquez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hostmaker: Tourist Flats were 11.6% YoY More Expensive in Barcelona this Easter

6 April 2018 – Eje Prime

The Barcelona brand is continuing to sell outside of its borders. The price of tourist rentals in the Catalan capital rose by 11.6% during the recent Easter holidays. This data is evidence of the “recovery” of the city, according to the apartment manager Hostmaker.

The British company, which has been operating in Barcelona since 2015, reveals that visitors paid €115 per day, on average, for every night that they spent in one of the hundreds of tourist apartments located all over the city, up from the €103 that they paid last year during the same (equivalent) dates.

“We are seeing a trend that confirms the recovery of the Barcelona brand”, said Inés Nobre, Director General of Hostmaker in Spain. The data from her company supports this statement, given that the occupancy rate of tourist apartments grew by 25% between 24 March and 2 April 2018 compared to the same (equivalent) period in 2017.

Of the tourists who used the platform to spend Easter in Barcelona, European visitors were the most prevalent, accounting for 57% of total reservations, followed by North Americans, with 23% of the total. People from Asia and South America, with 11% and 9%, respectively, were the other two visitor profiles who took advantage of the holidays to stay in tourist apartments in Barcelona.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tinsa: Málaga Leads Resurgence of Spain’s Real Estate Sector

5 April 2018 – Málaga Hoy

The main star of the resurgence of the real estate sector in Spain is Málaga. A report published yesterday by the appraisal company Tinsa reveals that “the province of Málaga, with 35 house sales for every 1,000 homes in the last year, is the region with the highest volume of activity in the whole country”, ahead of Alicante and the Balearic Islands.

This research compares the number of house sales and new home permits with the volume of existing housing stock in order to “identify the most dynamic markets in proportion to their size”. In terms of planned homes, Málaga is one of the provinces that is growing the fastest with 4.8 licences approved for every 1,000 homes in the last year, a similar volume to that of Alicante and Vizcaya, although the highest number of permits in proportion to the existing stock was seen in Madrid and Guipúzcoa.

Málaga is a very sought-after market for the main domestic and international property developers and that can be seen through the high number of residential projects that are currently underway both in the capital as well as at various points along the coast, primarily in Estepona. Several directors in the sector commented recently to this newspaper that Málaga is on everyone’s agenda, at the same level as Madrid and Barcelona, and that the province can expect to see multi-million euro investments.

Logically, that supply is being built because there is demand, although it is unique in the case of Málaga because, in this province, buyers looking for primary residences compete with investors looking for properties to lease to tourists and foreigners who want to acquire second homes on the coast where they can stay for several months at a time. There is tension and that drives up prices and decreases the average transaction term.

According to Tinsa’s report, the average price per square metre in the province of Málaga during the first quarter of this year was €1,479/m2, up by 5% compared to the previous year, including both new and second-hand homes. That represents a considerable boost, but, as the research itself points out, this average price is still 42% lower than the peak reached in the last decade at the height of the bubble. According to the appraisal company, that price increase means that the average mortgage taken out by buyers in Málaga amounts to €120,465 with a monthly instalment of €561, the highest in all of Andalucía.

Homes are more expensive but the time needed to sell them is less because there are increasingly more clients who are willing to pay the asking price. During the first quarter of this year, the average sales period for a home in the province of Málaga was 7.4 months, according to data from Tinsa, whilst over the last three years, the average has amounted to around nine months.

Original story: Málaga Hoy (by Ángel Recio)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Treasury Requires Tourist Rental Platforms to Submit Quarterly Informative Returns

1 March 2018 – Expansión

The Government wants to put a stop to the fraud that is happening in the emerging market for tourist apartments. To this end, it is going to intensify the inspection of companies dedicated to the transfer of use of flats, such as Airbnb, HomeAway, HouseTrip, MyTwinPlace, Only-apartments, IntercambioCasas and Rentalia. For that, it is going to require them all to provide much more information and it will conduct a quarterly control of all of their activities. Through this, it wants to improve the “prevention of tax fraud for people and entities, in particular, the so-called collaborative platforms that mediate the transfer of use of homes for tourist purposes”, according to the draft ministerial order designed to put a stop to these kinds of irregularities, to which Expansión has had access. The text approves the so-called “model 179 informative declaration”, together with the conditions and procedures for presenting the required information before the Treasury.

The measure forms part of the strictest control that the Treasury wants to exercise over intermediaries in a rising sector, such as the tourist rental market, which has experienced a genuine boom in recent years and which now has 513,820 beds, 30% more than the sum of Spain’s hotels, hostels and B&Bs (393,838), according to data from Exceltur.

Until now, some of the main initiatives have been directed at users themselves, such as the warning issued last year by the Tax Authorities to more than 21,500 people that had leased their homes through these platforms, advising them that they must declare the money received in their tax returns.

The Treasury wants to close the door on the lack of transparency surrounding certain tourist rentals, behind which are sometimes even hotel chains, which lease homes through the platforms, and are in turn disguised as private users.

As a result, the ministerial order that the Department of Tax Management at the Tax Authority has prepared, emphasises certain concepts that may seem obvious, such as the importance of identifying the owner of the home or of the right “by virtue of which use of the dwelling is transferred”, if that is different from the rightful owner of the home. Moreover, all of the features of a property must be identified. Together with the general registry information, the specific details of each one of the operations that are carried out must be reported: the number of days during which a client leases the home and the price paid to the owner in exchange for its use.

This new order from the Treasury comes in addition to local legislation from many Town Halls such as those of Barcelona, Madrid and the Balearic Islands, which have proposed “ceilings” to stop the overheating of rental prices that has resulted from the boom of Airbnb and similar platforms. In fact, according to calculations from Urban Data Analytics for this newspaper, the upwards trend from the collaborative economy has caused rental prices to rise by an additional 6% in the Eixample district of Barcelona and by an additional 4% in the Centro district of Madrid in one year. That happens because the properties in question generate double the returns of a long-term rental property “A 40 m2 one-bedroom home in the Puerta del Sol area of Madrid generates €1,513 per month on Airbnb and a traditional rent of €700”, says the company by way of example.

Grace period

(…) This ministerial order (…) will apply to all transfers of homes for tourist purposes that take place on or after 1 January 2018.

The frequency of these returns to the Treasury will be quarterly (they must be submitted during the calendar month following the end of each quarter). But this year, in order to facilitate the process, those corresponding to the first two quarters of 2018 may be submitted up until 31 December 2018. Those corresponding to the third and fourth quarter will have to be submitted before 31 October 2018 and 31 January 2019, respectively (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Regional Gov’ts Clamp Down on Tourist Apartments

28 January 2018 – El Economista

Spain is breaking records in terms of visitor numbers and, in the age of the globalisation of communications, many people are wanting to make money from renting out their homes. This trend has forced autonomous governments and town halls to introduce legislation so that the so-called collaborative economy does not end up turning into unfair competition.

The tourist housing sector has been calling for the homogenous regulation of its activity for some time now, but for the time being, it has had to make do with the regulations approved by certain autonomous governments and town halls, above all those in the most central neighbourhoods, which are seeing their resident populations emptying out in the face of rising rental prices.

The latest to join the regulation train is the Town Hall of Madrid, which has approved a one-year moratorium for the granting of operating licences for all kinds of accommodation in residential buildings exceeding 90 days.

The moratorium will result in the suspension of licences for the opening of new hotels in the centre, a paralysis that in the case of tourist homes also extends to the districts of Chamberí, Salamanca and Arganzuela.

The Community of Madrid is also preparing a decree to regulate homes for tourist use, which will require owners to have a certificate of suitability to guarantee that their properties fulfil the conditions necessary and which will define digital platforms such as Airbnb as “tourist companies”, liable to fines of up to €300,000.

One of the pioneers in regulating this activity was the Town Hall of Barcelona, which prohibits the opening of new accommodation of this kind in the centre of the city, but does allow the closure of existing ones in the outskirts to be compensated, provided the new units are located in exclusive buildings and have not been used for residential purposes.

Moreover, it has strengthened the detection and sanctioning of illegal tourist apartments and, in the application of Catalan law, has fined operators that publicise them.

The Balearic Islands’ Government is also fining people who let their apartments to tourists up to €40,000, and in the case of real estate agents, tourism brokers and the digital platforms that publish them like Airbnb and HomeAway, it is levying fines of up to €400,000.

In fact, last month, sanction files were opened against Airbnb and Tripadvisor for their illegal supply of rental apartments in the Balearic Islands.

Meanwhile, since 2016 in Andalucía, the Junta has obliged homes used for tourist purposes to be recorded in a register, in order to avoid fraud, intrusion and unfair competition against hotel establishments (…).

After a great deal of controversy with tourist associations, the Canarian Government regulated the use of holiday rentals in 2015, and although the High Court annulled the article that prohibited holiday rentals in tourist areas, the law is still valid because the Executive filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which has not ruled yet (…).

Any apartment offered through a digital platform in the Community of Valencia must be registered with the Valencian Tourism Agency and is subject to governing regulations in terms of safety and quality.

Murcia, meanwhile, has implemented a specific plan to reduce the current mismatch between the regulated and unregulated supply, putting a stop to intrusion and reinforcing the fight against employment on the black market, which is typically precarious and exploitative.

By next spring, the Community of Castilla-La Mancha will have drafted a law that will put an end to the legislative vacuum in this regard and which, according to the regional Government’s calculations, will allow it to shed light on between 1,500 and 2,00 tourist homes that are advertised on several online portals, but which offer no guarantees for clients and generate no tax revenues for the administration.

In Euskadi, last month, the Basque Government approved a draft decree that seeks to regulate the most tourist aspects of homes, providing guarantees to advertisers, neighbours and tourists, given that the decision to grant licences lies with the town halls, such as those of Bilbao and San Sebastián, which account for two thirds of the almost 2,500 tourist apartments in the País Vasco (…).

In March 2017, the La Rioja Government approved a general tourism regulation, which distinguishes tourist apartments – those that contain three or more accommodation units in the same building – from homes for tourist use, including those that are advertised online.

Last year, a decree entered into force in Asturias to regulate tourist apartments and, according to the most recent available figures, 640 registrations have been recorded and 159 sanction files have been opened (…).

Finally, the Junta de Extremadura is working to reform Law 2/2011, dated 31 January, governing the Development and Modernisation of Tourism in Extremadura, which will materialise this year and which will offer new instruments to help in the fight against fraud involving tourist apartments.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Residential Rental Sector Continues to Thrive

6 January 2018 – Cinco Días

The current rental market in Spain has nothing or very little to do with the one that existed in the noughties (2000-2009), when being a tenant was almost equivalent to being a second-class citizen, as Gustavo Rossi, President of Alquiler Seguro, recalls. A study compiled by Idealista maintains that whilst in 2000, homes offered for rent represented just 9% of the market, by the end of 2017, Madrid was the third-placed city in the ranking of places with the most rental homes in Europe, whilst Barcelona was ranked sixth.

That increase in supply has been driven by an exponential growth in demand for rental homes and by the boom in tourist rentals. During the first few years of the crisis, demand switched to the rental market, above all due to necessity. Faced with the impossibility of buying a home due to the high prices or the closure of the credit tap by the banks, or even both factors, families had to resort to renting as their plan B.

Nevertheless, and as the economic and employment recovery has been gaining momentum, although the majority of those who rent still aspire to become homeowners, increasingly more households are opting to lease regardless of their economic capacity or solvency level. They are the new tenants by conviction. “The impact that the no-credit-generation (those who are not willing to get into debt and who prefer to pay to use a home) is having on the market is considerable”, explains Rossi.

One way or another, the percentage of households that rent their homes has gone from just 11% in 2001 to almost double that figure, more than 20% in 2017, according to figures from the sector. That progression is even more marked in the large cities since it is estimated that in Madrid and Barcelona, more than 30% of families rent their homes, which brings Spain closer to the European parameters, where the average number of rental homes exceeds that 30% threshold (…).

Sources at Fotocasa are convinced that this year (2018) there will be a lot of talk about the rental market once again. “The high returns that investors are seeking, the boom in tourist apartments and the change in mentality (towards renting) are going to continue putting upward pressure on rental prices, above all in the large cities”, says the firm’s Head of Research, Beatriz Toribio. In this sense, the table published by the Bank of Spain comparing yields on rental homes with those on the stock market (Ibex 35) and fixed income securities leaves little room for doubt. The latest data reveals a gross profit from rental properties of 4.2% p.a., which soars to 10.9% if we add the gain that can be obtained when a property is sold (capital appreciation) (…).

The experts offer two pieces of advice. Before choosing between traditional rental and tourist lets, investors should analyse all of the variables because it is not always more attractive for a property to be let for very short stays (refer to the comparative graph). And the Administrations are demanding that investors bet more on the rental segment, in the form of direct subsidies and tax reliefs, to encourage owners to put empty homes onto the market and that will allow them to reach maturity. “The rental market is here to stay”, says Eduard Mendiluce, CEO at Anticipa Real Estate.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sharp Fall in House Purchases by Brits in Alicante due to Brexit

29 December 2017 – El Boletín

A survey of real estate professionals conducted by the College of Real Estate Agents (API) of Alicante reveals that Brexit is having a significant effect on the real estate market in the region. The research indicates that many areas in the province, in particular along the coast, have experienced a notable decrease in the volume of house sales to British buyers in 2017 and that this trend is forecast to intensify in 2018.

The API College of Alicante points out that “traditionally, Brits have represented one of the largest groups of house buyers in Alicante, the province where the most homes and apartments are sold to foreigners in all of Spain”. Some of the Real Estate Agents are certain that 2017 has seen the lowest volume of sales to British citizens in decades”, although the situation is not being replicated with other overseas buyers.

Moreover, API’s research also shows that the decrease in sales to British citizens does not necessarily mean a reduction in the volume of purchases by foreigners, given that the gap being left by the Brits is being covered by foreigners from other countries. The report indicates that Belgians, Dutch, French, Norwegians, Germans and Russians will be the most active house buyers in 2018. People from up to 125 different countries are now buying homes in the province of Alicante.

Moreover, Brexit is not only affecting house purchases, it is also being felt in that more and more British citizens are putting their properties up for sale in the province of Alicante. In summary, more than 90% of the Real Estate Agents that work with foreigners have already felt the effects of Brexit on their operations and are convinced that the trend may yet intensify further during the course of next year.

Prices on the rise

Another conclusion from this study is that “nine out of every ten APIs interviewed are convinced that house prices in the province of Alicante will continue to rise in 2018, with increases that could range between 3% and 10%, depending on the area and type of home”. The average forecast increase in house prices amounts to around 5% in the province of Alicante as a whole.

The Real Estate Agents are also convinced that, after a year marked by the recovery of the sector, 2018 is going to be a year in which house purchases will continue to rise. “The second-hand market is going to continue to perform well, but 2018 will probably be the year in which new builds start to take off again, in towns where there is still land available”, explained Marife Esteso, President of the API College of Alicante.

In 2018, the worrying upward trend in the rental market is also expected to continue, where the gap between high demand and scarce supply, together with the diversion of homes to holiday lets, means that prices are going to keep rising. In this sense, many real estate agents indicate that the rise in holiday rentals is being driven not only by the higher returns on offer but also because holiday lets allow owners to avoid the problems of non-payment and property damage that are typically caused by long-term tenants.

Original story: El Boletín (by E.B.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bank of Spain: Rental Yields Soar to 9.8%

7 December 2017 – Expansión

According to the Bank of Spain, buy-to-let homes yield a return from rental income of 4.2% p.a. If to that figure, we add the appreciation in value of the underlying property, the total return amounts to almost 10%, on average. That figure is similar to those recorded during the real estate boom.

Buying a home to put it up for rent offers a much higher return than those generated by other financial assets, such as debt and deposits. Moreover, house prices are still much lower than they were ten years ago and still have the potential to rise. These factors, combined with the gradual recovery in employment and the enormous demand for rental properties, have created a very fertile scenario for investors, both for individuals as well as for Socimis and funds. For this reason, the major indicator of the residential sector is no longer just price – although that is important – but instead yield.

Homes now generate an average annual return of 9.8%, according to the Bank of Spain, which takes into account not only the rental yield but also the appreciation in the property value over 12 months. In other words, the yield is now 1.6 percentage points higher than it was a year ago, to bring it in line with the figures seen at the end of 2007, at the peak of the real estate boom.

This rise in returns is due to the increase in house prices and the rental boom. Increasingly more buyers are opting to acquire homes as a business, in the hope that those properties appreciate in value and generate more than 4% in the rental market (the average is 4.2%).

According to the latest study from Fotocasa – which Expansión revealed last Saturday – 24% of the people who have participated in the residential property market in the last year are investors. That figure exceeds 30% in the large cities, above all in Valencia (44%), Barcelona (36%) and Madrid (35%), according to data from Tecnocasa and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

“Now is a good time to buy to let, both for the long-term as well as for second home properties, given that both formulae are generating returns that, in the current context of low interest rates, cannot be found in any financial products or on the stock market”, says Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa (…).

What’s more, the appearance of new real estate business models has spurred profits along in the large cities, in such a way that 20% of investors now use their homes as tourist rental properties. That high percentage is due to the new short-term let platforms, such as Airbnb, which allow them to obtain even higher returns than from the traditional rental market.

Nevertheless, 65% of investors still prefer the stability of having a long-term tenant. The remaining 15% buy homes not to put them up for rent, but rather to wait for them to appreciate in value and to sell them at a profit.

Market leaders

Madrid and Barcelona are spearheading this new property fever. In the Spanish capital, buying a home to let it out generates a gross annual return of 11.8% (from rental income and capital gains); that figure amounts to no less than 23.1% in the Catalan capital, almost twice as much (…).

The central areas of Madrid and Barcelona are experiencing a genuine profitability boom. In the Catalan capital, the Sants-Montjuic district stands out, with a gross annual return of no less than 32.9% (5.3 points from rental income and 27.6 due to price rises). It is followed by Eixample (26.8%), Gràcia (25.9%), Sant Martí (25.6%), Horta-Guinardó (24.9%) and Nou Barris (21%, although the latter is the most profitable district excluding price rises: 6.6%), which all exceed 20%. The centre (Ciutat Vella) generates 19% and the exclusive district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi yields 13.2%

In Madrid, the Centro district comes close to 20% (19.7%); it is followed by Salamanca (19.2%) and Chamberí (18.8%) (…).

Something similar is happening along the coast. The highest returns in the beach areas are located in the Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Las Palmas, Huelva and Almería, where rental yields exceed 5.5%, and overall yields exceed 10% if we include the capital gains. The high combined return along the Malaga coast (17.9%) is particularly noteworthy.

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake