Property Rental: Keys To The State System Benchmark Index System

The awaited State System benchmark index of rental prices has now been published using data collected from 11.2 million rental agreements during the last four years. Issued by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, it will be updated every year and will gather data on 1.7 million properties and 33,662 census sections.

This index is fed by information from the Tax Agency, the land registry, the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the Bank of Spain and the bail bonds of the Autonomous Communities, as well as supply data from real estate portals.

Although the index does not yet act as a tool for local councils and autonomous communities to limit income, many arguments have been put forward in this regard, both for and against it.

According to the minister José Luis Ábalos, the function of the index is “to offer for the first time a state statistical tool on prices, so that individuals and the various agents have one more resource with which they can operate in this market”, as well as “to allow all administrations to have a more precise knowledge of the rental market and reduce the margin of error in political decision-making”. He points to young people as the main victims of the crisis and to COVID-19 as an incentive that makes the need to “strengthen the population segment on which the difficult task of guaranteeing an inclusive reconstruction in Spain will fall” a greater urgency.

The index contains detailed and precise information on the evolution of the long term housing rental market. 1.5 of the 1.7 million properties collected are collective housing, while the remaining 0.2 are single-family homes. The data collected refers to monthly rentals, surface area, monthly amount, etc.

David Lucas, Secretary General of Housing, explained that the index contains data from 33,662 census sections, from 9,842 census districts, 7,593 municipalities, 46 provinces and 15 autonomous communities plus Ceuta and Melilla. In addition, he added that they are trying to cross their data with those of País Vasco and Navarra to add them to the index.

This first analysis indicates that the most sought after areas are Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga, Canary Islands and Baleares.