How much can I charge for each room?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

The law does not set a price per room but a limit for the whole. Since 8 October 2026, the total rent for all the rooms let at the same time in the same flat cannot exceed the rent under the contract for the whole flat. If the flat is in a stressed residential market area (“zona tensionada”), declared as such because of the difficulty of accessing housing, as is the case in Barcelona and much of Catalonia, that rent is also subject to the area's limit, which is usually the updated rent under the last contract in the previous five years. Within that total, you can divide the rent among the rooms as you see fit, for example according to their size. In Catalonia, everything you charge counts as rent, including expenses and services. How it is calculated An example with made-up figures: The flat is in a stressed residential market area. Its last contract as a whole flat, three years ago, had a rent that today, once updated, would be 1.200 euros a month. You let four rooms at the same time. The four rents together cannot exceed 1.200 euros a month. If you let the largest room for 400 euros, the other three together cannot exceed 800. Outside stressed residential market areas, the limit is what would be obtained by letting the whole flat. If the flat has not been let as a whole in recent years, the law does not say clearly how that figure is calculated. In a stressed residential market area, the Ministry of Housing's reference rent index, which can be consulted on its website, provides an objective limit in those cases. If the total of the rents exceeds the limit, the tenant can in principle claim back what they have overpaid. What counts as rent and what you cannot charge In Catalonia, everything the tenant has to pay for the room counts as rent, including expenses, services, fees and utilities charged at a flat rate. Bundling them into an all-inclusive price does not get round the limit. You cannot charge the tenant the letting agent's fees or the costs of drawing up the contract. Nor the taxes on the property, such as the IBI, the local property tax. The statutory deposit (the “fianza”) is one month's rent for each contract. You can also ask for another guarantee of up to two months' rent, or one month's if the tenancy is temporary. If you are the tenant of the flat and sublet rooms with the landlord's permission, you cannot charge more than what corresponds to your own rent. Annual increases Each room contract can only be updated if this was agreed and only once a year, on the anniversary of the contract. The increase can never exceed the reference index for rent updates (the IRAV), which the INE, Spain's National Statistics Institute, publishes every month. In addition, for updates falling due up to 31 December 2027, the increase cannot exceed 2 % without a new agreement. If the rent already exceeds the Ministry of Housing's reference rent index, no increase is allowed.