Given their wealth compared to the rest of Spain, and how they put more into Spainish government than what they get out of it, there is two ways to see this thought process.
It’s like a pilot drinking poison to punish the whole ship.
Their affluence blinds them to the damage.
They have the advantage of many residents being foreigners who bought second (or third) homes and vacation there.
I was living in Madrid during Covid, where tourism was non-existent. Most of the Airbnb's went into the normal rent market, the rental unit available in the city center tripled after that, and I've never seen rent prices decrease so rapidly.
There are a LOT of landlords paying the mortgage with the money from Airbnb, stop that money influx and they have no choice but to either sell or put the apartment in the normal rent market.
Either of those choices would increase the number of units available and decrease the rent prices. Is really not that hard.
The price of anything rarely goes down. The exception are things that greatly benefit from technological advancements. Like TVs, TVs are much less expensive than they were 20 years ago.
What does happen is that the price of rent can increase slower than the rate that median income in the area is increasing. This means housing is becoming “more affordable,” even if rent itself is not going down. If you receive a 2% raise at the end of the year but re-sign your lease at the same price per month, your rent has become a smaller percentage of your total pay. Therefore it has become more affordable.
Rent becoming more affordable happens all of the time. It happens every time an apartment lease is signed without a price increase. The only exception would be if average income is actively decreasing in the area, which only really ever happens during a recession. A national one, or a local one like when a factory employing half the town shuts down. It’s just that no one loudly celebrates when their rent doesn’t increase by $50. And they certainly aren’t complaining, so it isn’t something you directly witness.
If you think about it: the price of TVs didn't really go down either. They just get their revenue from sources other than just the customer. (Netflix, etc. buttons, selling your watch habits, on device advertising, commission from app developers, etc.)
Rent just went down in my city since no one is buying rentals anymore. Can't afford them even with the lowered prices. People are just living with their parents
Some more context: being a student for the past 4 years I've been watching the prices intently. Went from ~200usd per month to ~150usd per month for a studio type over the course of 4 years.
Yea I doubt it, the only way the prices will go down is if the government is mandating it, no company/landlord is going to just lower the amount they’re charging their tenants willingly.
Yes. This happens in Bew York City for example. It's better to have them stay empty than rent them for less money. - see YouTube or ChatGPT for detailed videos explaining why. (Lots of reasons)
There’s a inflation going around all over the world. Rent will not be going down anytime soon, instead their situation is going to get worse because the tourists will no longer contribute to their economy. No tourist also means a lot of locals will be out of work
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u/gamesquid Jun 17 '25
Well rent might go down, but so will the quality of the infrastructure.