The housing occupies a good part of the Spanish political debate, but it also forms an important part of the assets of those who sit in the Congress of Deputies. 86% of the parliamentarians declare to be owners of at least one home, while around 14% do not report any in their asset declaration, according to an analysis carried out by Europa Press on the asset information presented by the deputies. However, being an owner is far from automatically meaning becoming a landlord: only 66 of the 350 deputies, about 19% of the Chamber, declared receiving money from the rental of homes, commercial premises, or rural properties.
The difference has to do with the functioning of the Congress's own declarations. Parliamentarians must report separately their asset holdings and the income they obtain, so a home can appear among their properties without generating any rental income. It may be the primary residence, a second home that is not rented, a shared property, or a share received through inheritance. Furthermore, the parliamentary forms collect the income received during the previous economic year, so the snapshot of the income does not always exactly match the current situation of each property.
66 deputies declare rental income
The analysis of the declarations submitted at the beginning of the XV Legislature shows that 66 parliamentarians acknowledged income from the rental of properties, including not only conventional rental homes but also, in some cases, vacation rentals, commercial premises, or rural properties. That is to say, the data does not allow us to conclude that the 66 are necessarily owners of a home rented long-term to another family.
By groups, the PP had 29 deputies declaring rental income, 21% of the 137 parliamentarians that the group had at the time of the analysis. In the Socialist Group, there were 21 of 121, 17.35%, while in Vox there were seven of their 33 deputies, around 21.2%. In proportional terms, Junts recorded three landlords among its seven representatives and the PNV, two among five; EH Bildu counted two among six and Sumar, two among 26. Europa Press did not locate rental income among the deputies of ERC nor among the members who then formed the Mixed Group.
The figures correspond to the analysis of the available declarations and the existing parliamentary composition in February 2026, so they should not be interpreted as an unchangeable snapshot of the Chamber. Congress requires the publication of asset and income declarations and also their modifications when a parliamentarian updates the information, while final declarations are made public when they lose their status as a deputy.
Sánchez and Feijóo did declare income from real estate
Among the main national leaders, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo declared income from real estate upon joining the legislature. According to the analysis by Europa Press, Sánchez reported 12,845 euros annually for this concept and Feijóo, 5,584 euros. The asset declarations are part of the Register of Interests of the Cortes and are public during the legislature.
In the case of the other two leaders included in that comparison, Santiago Abascal and Yolanda Díaz were not among those declaring rental income. This does not allow us to deduce on its own whether they own real estate or not: again, assets and income are two different sections of the declaration. The Congress file of both leaders keeps their asset and income declarations corresponding to the beginning of the XV Legislature accessible.
Having three properties does not mean renting three properties
This is one of the aspects that can generate the most confusion when consulting the declarations. In the section related to assets, deputies must detail the urban and rural real estate properties, indicating issues such as their general location, the date of acquisition, the percentage or right they hold over them, and the manner in which they were acquired. A person can, for example, own 50% of a property acquired together with their partner or only have an inherited share in another property.
The fact that those properties appear in the assets does not imply that they are on the rental market. One may be the habitual residence and another used personally for part of the year; there may also be an empty property, given free of charge to relatives or shared among several heirs. What allows us to know if it has generated income is the specific section dedicated to income, where the parliamentarian must report the amounts obtained from real estate during the previous economic year.
There is also another particularity: the declaration does not necessarily offer all the details of each contract. It may indicate that there are "real estate income" or "rents," along with the annual amount received, but that does not always allow linking each euro publicly to a specific property nor knowing the monthly rent, the duration of the contract, or the characteristics of the tenant.
Up to 33,000 euros annually among the highest declared incomes
The amounts are very different among parliamentarians. Within the PP, the deputies with the highest real estate income analyzed by Europa Press ranged between 24,000 and 33,000 euros annually, while among the socialists the highest figures were between 11,000 and 16,000 euros. These are amounts declared by the parliamentarians themselves and correspond to the fiscal year prior to the moment they presented their asset information.
For this reason, it is also not correct to simply compare the number of properties with the declared income. A deputy may own several small shares in family properties and not earn practically any income, while another may have a single rented property that generates a significant amount each year. The declaration serves to know what the parliamentarian owns and what income they claim to have received, but it does not equate to an inventory of the everyday use of all their properties.
What Congress requires to declare
The publication of this information derives from the rules on the Register of Interests of the General Courts and from the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime. Deputies must submit declarations about their activities, assets, and income, in addition to informing about certain economic interests. The objective is to make public possible asset interests that may be relevant during the exercise of the position.
The form expressly distinguishes between income from work, dividends, financial interests, and "other income or perceptions," a section in which income derived from real estate properties is usually included. The patrimonial assets appear separately, including homes, commercial premises, garages, land, and other properties. The instructions themselves indicate that the declared income corresponds to the economic year prior to the submission.
Owners, but not necessarily landlords
The photograph of the Congress therefore leaves two figures that describe different realities. More than eight out of ten deputies own at least one home, but less than two out of ten declared income from rentals. The first figure speaks of the real estate assets of the parliamentarians; the second, of who effectively obtained income from some property during the declared period.
This difference is especially relevant in the midst of the debate on rentals, evictions, and access to housing. Public declarations allow us to know how many deputies have reported real estate income and what amounts they state, but do not automatically allow converting each declared apartment into a rented home. To do so, it would be necessary to know the use of each property, something that the Register of Interests does not require to be detailed with that level of precision.