Price tensions drive up room rentals in shared apartments
The tight housing market has led to an increase in room-by-room rentals for permanent housing in large cities and tourist areas. High rental prices relative to the income levels of low-income families, young people, and migrants are leading to the localized growth of a type of housing that lacks precise public information or its own regulations. For many citizens, the only option for a roof over their heads is four walls in a shared apartment. Experts are beginning to coin the term "vertical shantytown" for some situations.
Room rentals come in four forms. The most common is for an owner to rent out their home by room. The second format involves a live-in owner renting out one or more rooms in the apartment. In the third, the owner rents out their entire home to a company, which, in turn, with the owner's permission, subleases the apartment by room (known in real estate jargon as "rent-to-rent"). The fourth form involves an owner renting out an apartment and the tenant subleases it by room, legally or illegally. Cities like Madrid and Barcelona offer all four types and are already seeing a fifth case that adds to the precariousness: shared room rentals. This is a minority but does exist in the market.
Renting a room now costs more than €500 a month on average, according to Fotocasa.Encarnación González is retired and has no children. She lived in Barcelona with her partner until they separated. She sold the family home and moved to Valencia to rent. Her pension is 825 euros, so she can't rent an entire apartment. She shares a property with three other people. This isn't her desired retirement, but she can't afford to rent alone.
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Room-to-room rentals have proliferated in recent years as a residential alternative, particularly in the poor neighborhoods of large cities. As the market has tightened, more and more shared housing has emerged. Governments lack public records on how many homes are rented by multiple tenants, making it difficult to determine the penetration of this model.
The only available data comes from real estate portals and, therefore, only offers a snapshot of the supply. The reality is that this phenomenon is on the rise. Idealista estimates that the average price of a rental room in Spain is €420 per month, with the supply of rooms in shared apartments growing by 7% year-on-year by the end of the first quarter of 2025. According to the portal, demand for this type of accommodation is growing by 8%. Fotocasa offers a similar conclusion, although it raises the average price per room to €520 per month. “Tenants have never had to face such high costs as they are now,” it concludes.
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In cities, there is a high demand for rooms from tenants who cannot afford the full rent. This is the case of Estrella, a Salvadoran woman who shares a room with her two children in the Usera neighborhood of Madrid. She claims she "can't afford anything else." They sleep in the same room, the children study, and she irons. At night, the three of them watch television in their beds. They have access to a shared kitchen and a private bathroom. She says she's lucky because some of her compatriots even have to share the bathroom. She doesn't know the other tenants in other rooms at all. There are eight people in three rooms. Her "landlord" sublets them the apartment he rented to a third party.
For landlords, the benefits of room-based rentals are greater than traditional rentals. "The profitability is 9.3% compared to 6.1% for the typical rental," notes Fotocasa. This option also doesn't require as much attention as a vacation rental, experts point out. In fact, there are an increasing number of companies specializing in shared apartment rentals. Badi, based in Barcelona, and Spotahome are two examples.
Catalonia, a pioneer in regulationRoom rentals in Spain are not specifically regulated by law. The Congress of Deputies has not yet passed any legislation, despite ERC (Republican Workers' Party) having repeatedly pressured the government to do so. Article 4.3 of the Urban Leasing Law states that "leases for non-residential use are governed by the will of the parties; failing that, by the provisions of Title III of this law and, additionally, by the provisions of the Civil Code." In other words, to rent a room in Madrid or Valencia, it is not even mandatory to create a contract or official written document, although it is recommended. The market moves faster than the legislative framework, and this lack of regulation is already trapping tenants with lower purchasing power. Catalonia did pass a decree this year establishing that room rentals will have the same price limits as regular rentals. "All dwellings intended to satisfy housing needs, regardless of their duration, will be considered permanent rentals," states the text approved by the Parliament. Barcelona is the Spanish city with the most expensive room rentals: 600 euros on average compared to 560 euros in Madrid.
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