The rental market in the Community of Madrid faces a critical point: approximately one in three contracts, around 33%, ends in the next 12 months. This means tens of thousands of households that will have to renegotiate their conditions.
The housing decree pending approval is presented as a key tool to cushion that impact. Among other measures, it seeks limit rent increases in contract renewals, expand protection against evictions and give continuity to the extraordinary mechanisms that had partially contained the market. However, its blockage leaves tenants in a situation of high vulnerability.
According to recent data, the rental price in Madrid has experienced year-on-year increases that, in some areas, exceed 10%, with districts where the square meter reaches historical highs. The termination of contracts without a clear regulatory framework opens the door to significant increases or non-renewal.
The spokesperson of the Madrid Tenants' Union, Fernando de Los Santos warns that “without the decree, thousands of families will be at the mercy of the market”. The spokesperson points out that many landlords could apply increases “of two digits” in renewals, which would leave a significant portion of current tenants out of the market.
The union also puts figures on the social impact: they estimate that a relevant percentage of those contracts, especially among young people and middle incomes, will not be able to assume the new conditions. This could translate into an increase in forced displacements towards the periphery or even outside the region.
Furthermore, they recall that Madrid is one of the communities with the greatest tension in the rental market, where the available supply does not grow at the same rate as demand. In that imbalance, the massive termination of contracts acts as a “price accelerator”.
In parallel, time plays against. Every month without a decree implies thousands of contracts entering a renewal phase without clear limits, which increases the uncertainty. For the Tenants' Union, the equation is clear: without intervention, the market will tend to harden even more.
