In a study, the OECD warns that setting rents would hinder the entry of housing into the market and this scarcity would drive prices up in the long term
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Coinciding with the announcement by the Government of Spain that it will challenge the Catalan housing law that limits rental prices in the most pressured areas of Catalonia, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has just published a study concluding that this type of regulation, while it may initially benefit tenants, will ultimately harm them in the long run.
The study by the organization made up of 38 states aimed to "promote affordable housing"
In recent years, rental housing has become significantly more expensive, making access to it difficult. In real terms, prices have risen by up to 100% in some countries since the 1990s. In Spain, the financial crisis deflated rental prices; however, since 2012, investment in housing has grown at a faster rate than in the OECD countries as a whole, which warns that the price gap by regions is worsening. An example is large cities like Madrid and Barcelona, where there is strong pressure on prices due to much higher demand than supply of housing.
Despite this, in the last year, according to data from the real estate portal pisos.com, there have been declines of over 8% in rental income, occurring in Madrid (8.7%) and in the Canary Islands (8.16%). Following were the Balearic Islands, with a decrease of 7.3%; Asturias (5.9%) and the Basque Country (4.95%).
