Madrid: the city that raised its rent 35% and called it normal
Five years, one third more expensive. We walked Lavapiés, Vallecas and Tetuán to ask the people still holding on how they do it.
+35%
Avg. rent increase since 2021
There is a number that follows you around Madrid right now. It sits between the lines of every Idealista listing, behind every 'se alquila' sign taped to a balcony in Vallecas. That number is 35 — the percentage by which average rents in the capital have climbed since 2021.
In Lavapiés, a one-bedroom that cost €750 five years ago now lists at €1,050. The landlord calls it 'market price'. The market, of course, is just a word we use to avoid saying 'whoever can pay the most'.
We spent two weeks talking to tenants across three barrios. The stories rhyme: salaries up 8%, rents up 35%, savings gone. One nurse told us she now spends 54% of her net salary on a flat where the boiler works 'when it feels like it'.
The city's rental stress index — the share of households paying more than 40% of income on housing — has crossed one in three. Among under-30s, it's closer to one in two.
None of this is an accident of nature. It's the product of choices: tourist-flat conversions, vulture funds buying whole blocks, and a rental law with more holes than a colander. Born to Pay Rent exists to write those choices down, name them, and refuse to call them normal.