Living from rent is a decision many people make because they have no other choice. Buying a house is a gigantic investment for which, moreover, it is necessary to have some money aside to at least afford the down payment, as well as sufficient financial solvency to obtain a mortgage. For this reason, those who choose leasing as the only possible solution given their situation involuntarily begin to generate a social gap with those who have the means to become owners. In fact, eight out of ten tenants think they will never abandon this condition, as they do not expect to inherit a house, their only chance of becoming homeowners, according to a study published Wednesday by the Barcelona Urban Research Institute (IDRA), a think tank that seeks to promote social and ecological justice.
In this century the number of tenants has reached very high levels in several cities around the world. Although in Spain this market today represents just 10% of the total residential stock – the aspiration to become homeowners is more rooted than in other countries – in cities like Lisbon or Buenos Aires, where, in addition to Madrid and Barcelona, the IDRA study is also concentrated, the percentage has skyrocketed.
While in the Argentine capital the percentage of tenants has tripled since 2001, in the Portuguese capital the tenant population grew in 2021 for the first time since 1960. As for Madrid and Barcelona, the text indicates that “they have recorded an accelerated increase since 2007”, Barcelona being the city with the highest percentage of tenants.
These continuous increases over time have shaped the contours of different societies. The study, whose results are drawn from surveys conducted among tenants in these four cities, states that the data “proves that the housing crisis is not a country-specific problem and that it is not a simple question of lack of supply”. In this regard, he underlines that “more and more people live in rent, and do so in conditions characterized by residential insecurity, economic precariousness and wealth inequality”.
Being a tenant is, many times, an obligatory decision for those who want to become independent. However, this is a potentially walking state. According to the study, between 30% and 44% of those who recently moved did so by force, because they could not cope with rising prices or because their contracts had expired. Furthermore, around a third of them believe they will have to move in the next year, when six in ten have lived in their current home for less than five years (the guaranteed duration of a main home rental contract in Spain).
“The rental market is a source of urban inequality. The expansion of rent as a form of access to housing, without adequate protections, has deepened social inequalities and left many tenants in a defenseless situation,” warns the text, signed by researchers Marta Ill-Raga, Pablo Pérez and Jaime Palomera.
Increased load
This constant going in and out of different houses, already distressing, is aggravated by the fact that even finding a new space is not an easy task. In Barcelona and Madrid, 42.18% of tenants admit to having encountered barriers to rent, well below the case of Buenos Aires (76%) although doubling the record of Lisbon, where the difficulties are fewer, with only 17% of tenants encountering barriers.
According to the study, the fact that paying rent represents an enormous burden on tenants’ finances also contributes to the increase in uncertainty and this cocktail of housing precariousness. In the case of Madrid, the average effort went from 42% among contracts signed before 2018 to 53% in contracts in 2023; while in Barcelona the increase is more moderate, going from 52% in contracts signed in 2017 or before, to 56% in those signed in 2022.
An effort that they must also make to be able to support themselves in homes where eight out of ten declare they suffer from serious deficiencies. The main shortcomings reported by tenants are those linked to poor thermal and acoustic insulation, as well as the lack of heating, and the need to renovate an extremely old park.
An important aspect when it comes to perpetuating the inequality of many tenants has to do with the fact that the protected market (that of affordable housing intended for rental) is absolutely a minority in cities like Madrid or Barcelona (with 7% and 9% of the total respectively). “This trend is marked by the planned termination of old rental contracts,” reads the text, which also highlights that income instability or lack of work constitute the other leg that makes access to rental housing difficult for this group.
Opacity
Another noteworthy point from the study is the opacity that tenants find themselves in compared to their landlords. In Barcelona, 17% do not know who their owner is, compared to 8.2% in Madrid. Furthermore, in both cities, tenants who deal with a real estate agency know even less who their landlord is (24.1% in Barcelona, 18.8% in Madrid). “Tenants whose relationship with the owner is mediated by a real estate agency are less satisfied with their accommodation, suffer more abuse, more rent increases, more discrimination in access and a greater sense of residential instability,” we read in the text.
As recommendations to reverse this situation, the authors of the text call for greater protection of tenants through different formulas: introduction of contracts without a predefined expiry date, which last as long as the tenant fulfills his obligations; prohibit the speculative purchase of housing for investment purposes; progressively tax the ownership of goods and real estate; expand the supply of public housing for permanent rent; banning the licensing of tourist rentals or imposing taxes on empty homes.
