Renting a house in Malaga was a practically impossible task a year ago, and the situation is only getting worse. The supply remains scarce and the price continues to rise, making it virtually impossible for a family with a normal salary to get a home. This is reflected in the latest data from the real estate portal Idealista, which highlights that the average rental price in the province of Malaga is 13.8 euros per square meter in December, an increase of 13.6% over last year. a new historical record.

Idealista provides data from 14 locations in the province - where it has a significant sample of apartments for rent - and in all of them renting an apartment is now more expensive than a year ago. In fact, we also have record prices in Malaga city and Casares. On average, for an apartment of 100 square meters, 13.8 euros per square meter would cost 1380 euros per month. This is the monthly salary of many people in Malaga, so you can not allocate the entire salary only to rent, because you tend to pay for food, clothes, electricity, water, etc. every day.

Several municipalities included in this study even exceed these 13.8 euros. The most expensive is Marbella, with an average price of 16.2 euros per square meter (7.9% more than a year ago). Torremolinos and Benalmádena already pay 14.1 euros per square meter and Benahavis 15.5 euros. 

In the capital, Malaga, the price continues to rise like wildfire. The average price per square meter is 13.6 euros, 14.5% more than a year ago and a historical record. The cheapest location analyzed by Idealista is Ronda with 6.1 euros per square meter. Alhaurín el Grande and Torre del Mar also cost less than 10 euros per square meter.

Are prices projected to fall? It is already difficult to know because we have been years where it seems that it can no longer grow, but even so it does. On the other hand, there is a lack of supply of tourist apartments and the fact that the construction of new apartments has not yet started. On the other hand, demand continues to grow in a province like Malaga, which attracts workers from other parts of Spain and abroad - many of them well paid and where young people logically dream of independence. and create their own family without having to live at home with their parents.

"2023 was a bad year for rentals. Supply continues to evaporate with no signs of increasing in 2024, and prices reached record highs in most markets this December," says Idealista spokesman Francisco Iñareta ... . The expert adds that "the consequent rental measures and their culmination with the approval of the housing law last May caused the current cataclysm: the loss of the investor in rental housing and a significant withdrawal of owners who decided not to continue with housing in the face of "Regulatory instability and as a problem when they are the most important part of the solution. Because of this, many still choose landlords in the market to keep their properties available for seasonal rental, tightening conditions and seeking reliable tenants. regulatory experiments, implementation of policies that never worked where they were implemented, reality set in. Measures to lower prices and protect the most vulnerable families among privileged tenants have resulted in the opposite: supply is scarcer than ever, prices are at historic levels, high-rises and the most vulnerable tenants are left completely unprotected.

In this sense, the Idealista spokesperson predicts that "without a 180-degree turnaround in the rental market, in a year's time we will be in an even worse situation, much further away from a stable market, with plenty of supply and reasonable prices".