The regulatory changes that are coming with the future housing law, the 2% limit to the increase in rents and the escalation of the Euribor are expelling small holders from the rental market. A situation that affects to a greater extent owners with variable mortgages on rented properties. “If the loan installment goes up, there comes a time when the landlord has to put money out of his pocket, as it happened to me,” explains Rebeca Pérez.
The executive director and founder of Inviertis, a platform specializing in the sale of rented properties, maintains that there is “a growing interest” from landlords to get rid of their properties. A trend that is reflected in recent studies of the sector, such as the 2022 Market Report of Amat Inmobiliaris.
Added to the difficulty of selling at a time of declines in sales is the stumbling block of having a current lease. “One of the important aspects to take into account is that the buyer must subrogate the contract in his rights – the collection of rent – and in his obligations,” Pérez clarifies. Therefore, the rent cannot be extinguished for wanting to sell the apartment.
Another aspect to take into account, as established by the Urban Leasing Law (LAU), is that the tenant has the right of preferential acquisition of the home. In the event that the lessee waives his right of first refusal, the landlord must notify him of his intention to sell the property at least 30 days before the date of formalization of the sales contract.
And what advantages does it have for an investor to acquire a flat with a tenant? The operation “is profitable in a shorter period of time, since from the first moment the rent is already being collected”, answers Ferran Font, director of Studies and spokesperson for Pisos.com. Another positive aspect is that “it involves less risk because the tenant already has a history, and also the initial investment is reduced”, since the real estate agency is saved and having to invest in improvements to the apartment before putting it up for rent. The main disadvantage is that you will not be able to update rents beyond the cap of 2% this year and 3% in 2024, unlike what happens with new contracts that are not affected by this limitation. For this reason, in the event that the rental fee “is cheap, it must be compensated in the price,” warns Pérez.
Even so, the average gross return of the more than 500 operations of this type that have been closed in Inviertis is 5.5%, although it depends on the area. “We have sold properties at 8% profitability on the coast of Tarragona, while in the center of Barcelona it is around 3.5% or 4%,” says its founder.
Sometimes, the owner himself who sells is the one who will stay as a tenant in the house. A very common case is an elderly person who needs the money but wants to keep their home, even if it entails a price reduction. “It usually pays off when they are prime areas,” he adds.
Among the precautions that both buyer and seller must take when closing a transaction of this type, the main one will be to “verify that in the rental contract there is a waiver of preferential acquisition by the lessee”, adds Carles Sala, spokesperson and legal manager of API Catalunya.
