Rental prices rose 1.6% in 2021 and have been rising for seven years

Apartment rental price index (IPVA) in 2021 grew by 1.6%, which is seven tenths higher than in 2020. according to data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). According to the experimental statistics of INE, This growth of 1.6% means that apartment rental prices have a chain of seven years of growth, although the growth recorded in 2021 does not exceed the maximum reached in 2019 (+3.5%).

According to published data, of the total number of rented apartments, 34.6% did not change the price between 2020 and 2021, while 18.6% lowered it. For their part, 46.8% of tenants increased the rental price of their homes. From them, half did so below 5%, and one in four above 10%.

The difference in rental prices is different if it is about rentals whose contract was signed in 2021 or if it is about existing contracts. Thus, the price of new contracts increased by 3.5%, while the prices of contracts that already existed before the mentioned year increased by 1.2%.

According to the type of building, collective housing – that located in buildings – rose in price by 1.5%, six tenths more than in 2020. the rental prices of family houses increased by 1.9% in 2021, which is 1.3 points more than the previous year.

According to Statistics, the rate of variation in the rental prices of family housing was higher than the rate of collective housing, which has not happened since 2015. According to the size of the apartment, the largest increase occurred in the largest houses, with a price increase of 1.8%. On the other hand, the smaller ones (below 60 square meters) increased the rental price less, at a rate of 1.2%.

The Community of Valencia recorded the highest price increase

Apartment rental prices increased in 2021 compared to 2020 in all autonomous communities. The largest increase occurred in the Community of Valencia, Castilla La-Mancha and Murcia, with increases of 2.6%, 2.4% and 2.3% respectively.

On the other hand, Comunidad de Madrid (1%), Cataluña (1.3%) and Principado de Asturias (1.5%) were the communities with the smallest annual increase.

The statistics also reflect the 20 municipalities of the provincial capital where prices rose the most from the base year, 2015, to 2021. In these one out of three houses for rent is concentrated in 2021. Between those years, the largest price increase occurred in Valencia, where the price increased by 18.1% between 2015 and 2021. They are followed by Palma de Mallorca (+17.5%), Málaga (+17%), Girona (+16.1%) and Guadalajara (+14.3%).

These experimental statistics of the INE, based on the year 2015, were created on the basis of data from the Tax Administration on rented apartments for which taxpayers earned income in that year, regardless of whether they were rented in previous years.

INE explains that the difficulty of including homes that were not rented in previous years is that there is no comparative element that would enable the calculation of their price development. In order to solve the problem, a statistical model was developed that allows estimating the rental value of homes in periods when they are not available.