61% of the homes offered on the rental market belong to individuals with two or more rented apartments, to legal entities, and to public administrations, while the rest remain in the hands of small owners with a single rented home. This is according to a report from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, prepared together with the CSIC based on the Household Panel, which cross-references information from Personal Income Tax, Wealth Tax, and demographic data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The 2023 Household Panel also confirms that 4.9% of the total population obtains income from renting their habitual residence (5.7% if only the adult population is considered), a percentage that rises to 9.3% when the analysis is carried out by household.
These figures show that landlords represent a small group compared to the number of tenants, who account for 20.8% of the total population or, in terms of households, 20.2%, according to the latest Survey of Living Conditions.
The study concludes that more than half of the rental properties managed by individuals in Spain are concentrated in the hands of multi-landlords, that is, people who put two or more homes on the market.
Specifically, this proportion reaches 52.8%, which shows that the figure of the small landlord is not dominant in the country: more than half of the individual market is in the hands of owners with two or more properties for rent.
The larger the urban size, the greater the weight of multi-landlords
The prominence of multi-landlord landlords is especially visible in most large Spanish cities and, in particular, in those where rental prices are higher.
Thus, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the capital with the highest concentration of this type of owner, with 64.9% of landlords identified as multi-landlords, compared to 35.1% who only have one property for rent. Very close is Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 64.6% compared to 35.4%.
After the Canary capitals appear Palma, with 63.1% of landlords with multiple rentals versus 36.9% with a single rental property; Barcelona, 60.8% versus 39.2%, and Madrid, with 56.4% versus 43.6%.
Strong growth of the park in the hands of multi-lessors
Between 2016 and 2023, multi-landlords increased their rental housing stock by 39.9%, almost 10 points above the progress recorded by small owners, which was 30.4%. In that interval, the number of homes rented by individuals went from 1,900,883 to 2,570,845 units.
This evolution shows that the expansion of the rental housing stock has not strengthened the position of the small landlord, but rather that of multi-landlords. Although the supply grew strongly in those years, that increase has been led by those who already owned several homes, consolidating an increasingly dominant position in the market.