As many as 1.6 million renters risk eviction or price hikes as their contracts come to an end in the coming year.
According to data from an internal document from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs with data from the Tax Agency. 632,369 rental contracts were signed in 2021, and the vast majority will expire in 2026 once the legal five-year lease term set by law has passed.
This means that tenants will be forced to renew their contracts at higher rents or, in other cases, could be forced to look for new homes in an increasingly tense market where prices are continuing to skyrocket across the country.
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This trend, dubbed 'the great rental renewal' in the property sector according to Cadena SER reporting, has already begun at the back-end of 2025.
This is because, immediately after the pandemic—between 2020 and 2021—a large number of contracts were signed which, although they have been updated annually, have had increases limited to the evolution of the CPI, a measure of inflation, according to the law in force at the time.
Now, when they expire, landlords are free to set whatever price they deem appropriate.
Far-left party Sumar, the junior coalition partner in government with the Socialists (PSOE) has called on the government to automatically renew these rental contracts at the price agreed five years ago, increased by the CPI.
Reporting from El Economista citing housing portal Fotocasa suggests that 43 percent of landlords whose rental contracts expire in 2026 say they will withdraw their flats from the long-term market.
Sixteen percent say they will move to the seasonal rental market, 11 percent to the tourist market and 6 percent to the room rental market.
Twenty-three percent will also raise their prices.
"The rental market is bleeding dry," said María Matos, head of research at Fotocasa, adding that the situation will worsen next year,when many of the rental contracts signed under the new Urban Leasehold Law (LAU) of 2019 will expire.
"We asked landlords what they will do with their properties when the contracts signed under the LAU expire, and 43 percent told us that they will withdraw their properties from long-term rentals,’ Matos said.
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