No long-terms rentals. Credit: Rocio X / Manuel Milan – Shutterstock
Spain has lost some 393,000 homes from its long-term rental listings in just seven years, according to new figures from property website Idealista.
The number of homes advertised for permanent rental fell from 902,664 in 2018 to 510,091 in 2025, representing a 44 per cent reduction.
Idealista’s figures only count active long-term rental advertisements and exclude seasonal lets and rooms, so they do not mean that 393,000 homes have simply been left empty. However, the dramatic fall raises fresh questions about what is happening to properties that were previously available to long-term tenants.
Where have Spain’s long-term rental homes all gone?
The reduction has happened while rental prices have been moving in the opposite direction. Idealista’s latest figures show Spanish rents were 5.6 per cent higher in September 2026 than a year earlier, at an average of €15.10 per square metre. Malaga province was among Spain’s most expensive areas, at €18.80 per square metre, after a run of rises that has already pushed Malaga rents above Barcelona.
Some of the country’s biggest tourist and expat markets have seen particularly strong pressure. Andalucia lost 34,403 long-term rental listings between 2018 and 2025, falling from 136,003 to 101,600. The province of Malaga is now one of Spain’s most expensive rental markets, with the latest Idealista figures putting the average at €18.80 per square metre.
For foreign residents, the problem is particularly relevant because the supply of homes available to rent is already competing with demand from Spanish households, international workers, students and people moving to popular coastal areas. Some of that demand is already spilling inland, with foreign renters searching in Jaen and Badajoz, places that were almost unthinkable before for expat living.
Are landlords being pushed out of the market?
That question is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore as Spain introduces tighter rules for the rental sector. The latest Government housing measures include limits on rent increases, stronger protection for some tenants and restrictions affecting other parts of the rental market. Critics argue that increasing regulation can make some owners less willing to offer properties on the long-term market.
That does not necessarily mean every landlord is selling up or leaving a property empty, but some may have changed to seasonal rentals (AirBnB style), sell the property, use it themselves or simply decide that the potential legal and financial risks of becoming a landlord are not worthwhile.
That could include foreign owners who bought a second home in Spain and previously considered putting it on the long-term rental market when they were not using it themselves.
Landlords not the bad guys
Spain’s landlords are not simply big investment companies. More than 90 per cent of homes rented as habitual residences belong to private individuals who have just one rental property, according to a study by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the CSIC. These can be ordinary property owners who inherited a flat from a parent, for example, bought a second home when Spanish property prices were far lower, or acquired a property over many years and decided to rent it out. For such owners, becoming a landlord may be a relatively small part of their finances rather than a professional business. The question is whether increasingly complicated rental rules and concerns about recovering their property could persuade some of these owners to sell, leave their homes empty or choose another type of rental.
In the latest round of rental-law legislation, one of the measures that didn’t pass was that landlords would have had to pay back 12-month’s worth of rent to the tenant if they wanted to recover the property.
The Government disputes the idea that its policies are reducing the overall rental stock. Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez has challenged the interpretation of the Idealista figures and says Spain has 380,000 more rented homes than in 2021.
Government figures also show that small private landlords still account for a substantial part of the rental market. A Ministry of Consumer Affairs and CSIC study found that private landlords with just one rented property account for around 39 per cent of rented homes, with the remainder held by landlords with multiple properties, companies, funds and public bodies.
Spain faces a serious rental supply dilemma
The competing figures underline the central problem facing Spain’s rental market. Protecting tenants can provide greater security for people already renting a home, but owners also need to believe that putting a property into the long-term rental market is worthwhile. Separate estimates already put Spain’s wider housing shortfall at around 740,000 homes.
With almost 393,000 fewer long-term rental advertisements than in 2018 and rents still rising, the question is no longer simply how Spain can protect tenants. It is also how the country can persuade enough property owners to keep offering homes to rent.
