Spanish rents slide at start of year

Average rents in Spain slid at the start of 2014, according to new data.

The figures from Fotocasa reveal that rents fell 0.5 per cent in January, the latest in a very long line of declines which, Spanish Property Insight notes, goes all the way back to May 2007.

Rents have now fallen a total of 32 per cent from the market peak to reach an average of 6.87 €/m2, although, much like the gradual bottoming out of house prices, the rate of rental decline is slowing down.

Nine regions have seen rents fall by more than 30 per cent, with Aragon recording a drop of 43 per cent, following by Cantabria (38 per cent), Valencia  (37 per cent), Castille La Mancha, Catalonia and Murcia (33 per cent), La Rioja (31 per cent) and Andalusia and the Balearics (30 per cent).