A Spanish property agent has prompted outrage on-line and amongst renters by charging €10 merely to view a rental property.
For a lot of that is additional proof of the worsening rental scenario in Spain and comes because the market has grown more and more saturated within the post-pandemic interval, with common costs in Spanish cities skyrocketing lately.
A Actual Property Index from property web site Fotocasa not too long ago discovered that rents in Spain have nearly doubled on common in simply 10 years. In a number of cities the worth improve has been over one hundred pc.
READ ALSO: When’s the very best time of the 12 months to start out renting in Spain?
Unsurprisingly a lot of the criticism has been directed in direction of landlords however now it appears Spanish property brokers are additionally attempting to money in.
The pay-to-view advert was first posted on common Spanish property portal Idealista for a 65m2 attic flat within the city of Santa Coloma de Gramanet in Catalonia, near Badalona.
The supply had all the same old data that rental adverts do (value, photos, location, transport connections, which flooring it was on) however Grup Capital property brokers additionally included a line stating that every viewing would price €9.90.
Owing to the outrage it generated on-line, the advert has since been taken down however social media customers managed to seize screenshots of the supply clearly stating se cobra la visita 9.90€ (€9.90 charged per go to). One put up highlighting the tactic has been seen over 333,000 instances.
9,90€ la visita.
Hui han anunciat que només hello ha menys de cent!!!!(100) pisos en lloguer per menys de 1200€/mes, dels quals només un terç són de lloguer regular (altres dos terços són de lloguer turístic/temporal).No teniu vergonya ni la coneixeu, 9,90€ la puta visita pic.twitter.com/oT2RRHDlw0
— Gina Modotti (@hernameisgina) August 25, 2024
Twitter/X customers didn’t maintain again of their criticism of the advert, with one person stating that “I hope nobody falls for this rip-off.”
“It is like being charged entry to go and purchase bread,” joked one. “That is disgusting and certainly unlawful,” added one other.
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The legality of pay-to-view adverts is unclear. A provincial court docket within the southern metropolis of Cádiz dominated not too long ago that property brokers can’t cost for viewings for potential property gross sales, however there doesn’t seem like a transparent nationwide ruling on the problem or something particular on rental properties but.
Spain’s Housing Legislation reforms tried to cross charges and administrative prices onto landlords, however landlords and property brokers alike have each exploited authorized loopholes to attempt to get round these prices.
One notable method landlords have achieved that is to search out methods to get round rental value caps outlined within the authorities’s flagship housing laws.
Spain’s Housing Legislation, which was handed again in 2023, was a wide-ranging invoice that not solely shifted company charges onto landlords, created value indexes and established ‘confused’ rental zones, but additionally ‘capped’ annual lease will increase. Critics argue the legislation has made the rental market worse regardless of being designed with tenants in thoughts.
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For a lot of renters spending increasingly more of their month-to-month wage on lease, the viewing charges controversy speaks not solely to the worsening market however the ineffectiveness of presidency laws in doing something about it.
Regardless of the outrage and questionable legality of charging for flat viewings, it is nothing new in Spain. In October 2023 Spanish day by day El Diario reported that potential renters have been additionally being charged viewing charges to see properties in Madrid.
READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Legislation fully failed to regulate rents?