Barcelona’s opposition People’s Party (PP) has launched a public campaign blaming Mayor Jaume Collboni for the city’s rental crisis, as new figures confirm the Catalan capital is now the most expensive place to rent in Spain. The conservative party has rolled out around one hundred posters across the city’s districts, directly targeting what it calls the “failed policies” of the current Socialist-led municipal government.

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The campaign posters feature a QR code that directs users to a video in which Daniel Sirera, the president of the PP group in the Barcelona City Council, outlines the party’s grievances. Sirera argues that the mayor’s approach has exacerbated an already dire situation for tenants, particularly young people.

“Today, living in Barcelona is a luxury available to very few,” Sirera stated, as reported by La Vanguardia. “Collboni has had the time, resources, and majorities to act, and he has chosen to persecute landlords and block developers.”

A Focus on Housing Supply

The PP primarily criticises the city’s regulation requiring 30 per cent of new developments and major refurbishments to be allocated to social housing. Sirera labelled the measure an “absolute failure,” arguing it deters property developers and strangles the supply of new homes. He also accused the pro-independence party Junts of “direct complicity” for supporting this policy’s continuation.

“Barcelona faces a major problem: developers are not building new housing, partly due to measures like the 30 per cent reserve, which deters them,” Sirera claimed. He also highlighted figures showing that in some neighbourhoods, the average rental price has hit €30 per square metre, meaning a small 30m² flat could cost €900 per month.

The criticism comes as the city council pushes forward with other housing initiatives. In a recent move, the administration announced it would tender public land for the construction of 625 affordable rental homes, part of a broader strategy to increase the public housing stock.

Unintended Consequences of Rent Caps

While the PP focuses its attack on municipal policies, real estate experts and economists point to a more complex picture, highlighting the unintended consequences of the region-wide rent cap implemented by the Generalitat de Catalunya in March 2024.

A recent study by Guifré Homedes, vice-president of the College of Real Estate Agents (API), found that rent controls are paradoxically benefiting higher-income households. With a severe shortage of available flats and hundreds of applicants for each listing, landlords are choosing the most financially secure tenants. “People with higher incomes are the ones who benefit most from the rent cap,” Homedes explained.

Data from the College of Property Administrators of Barcelona and Lleida (CAFBL) supports this analysis. Their figures show that the average percentage of income tenants spend on rent has fallen from 30-40 per cent in 2021 to 20-30 per cent now. This isn’t because rent is cheaper; instead, tenants with higher salaries increasingly dominate the market.

A Polarising Market

Research by José García Montalvo, a professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, indicates potential tenants with fewer resources “cannot find homes to rent and are pushed out of the market.” His work highlights an average of 300 applications for every flat that becomes available, enabling landlords to be extremely selective.

Data from the Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl) shows that while the average price of a new rental contract has risen only slightly, the price per square metre has increased by over 3 per cent since the cap took effect. This suggests that smaller, more expensive flats are making up a larger share of the available stock.

As the political debate intensifies, residents continue to face a challenging reality. The combination of restrictive municipal building policies and a regional rent cap that squeezes supply has created a perfect storm, leaving Barcelona’s housing market in a precarious state.