How many MPs are landlords?

🏘️ How many MPs are landlords?

When they take their seats, members of the Congress of Deputies submit a declaration of assets and income that is published on their profile page. We have read those of the 350 sitting MPs of the 15th Legislature to count how many declare rental income, how many own more than one home and what properties each one declares. Everything that follows is what their declarations state.

What being a landlord means

There is no single way to measure it, so several are given. The strictest is declaring rental income, which is not exactly the same as having something let out: someone may have it and not itemise it as separate income. 17.0 % of MPs declare it. Counting those who own at least two homes (even if they declare no income from them: they may be second homes or empty), the figure is 41.7 %. Also counting garages, storage rooms and commercial premises, 60.6 % declare two or more urban properties; but many share them with their partner or siblings, and adding up only their share of each one, 37.6 % reach two whole properties. At the other end, 15.2 % declare no urban property at all.

Compared with other taxpayers

The Spanish Tax Agency publishes how many personal income tax returns include income from let property. In the 2022 tax year, the same as most of the MPs' declarations, it was 13.2 % of all returns. But declaring rental income is far more common the more people earn: among those declaring income of 60,000 to 150,000 euros it is 30.4 %. MPs declare rental income somewhat more often than taxpayers as a whole and considerably less often than those in that income bracket.

What real estate they declare

The Congress form does not ask for the value of the properties, only their type, where they are, when they were acquired and what share belongs to the MP. That is why wealth is measured by what they own, not by what it is worth. The fairest measure is that of whole urban properties: the sum of their share of each home, garage, commercial premises or building plot (a flat shared half and half with a partner counts as a half). Rural plots are counted separately, because many are small inherited parcels in the countryside, especially in Galicia and Asturias, and say little about their owner's wealth.

Inherited or bought? 66 % of the urban properties declared were bought and 25 % came by inheritance or gift; for the rest the declaration does not say.

By parliamentary group

In small groups each MP moves the percentage a lot: with seven MPs, a single one is 14 points.

Ranking by party

As parties vary greatly in size, they are compared per MP: how many whole urban properties each of their MPs declares on average. MPs are grouped by the party they were elected for, with the PSC and the other federations within the PSOE.

The average is pushed up by a few MPs with many properties: the median tells how many the typical MP of each party owns. Parties with one or two MPs (BNG, UPN, CC) depend entirely on that person.

The MPs with the most whole urban properties

The order is set by the «Whole urban» column: a flat inherited among four siblings counts as a quarter, and one shared half and half with a partner, as a half. Rural plots and the properties of companies in which they hold a stake are shown but do not count towards the position. Each row links to the original declaration on the Congress website.

Methodology and sources

• Declarations: Congress of Deputies, MPs' profile pages, initial declaration of assets and income of each sitting MP of the 15th Legislature (submitted between 31/07/2023 and 17/09/2026). Later amendments are not used because they are usually partial. 2 declarations that cannot be read or that refer back to an earlier one are excluded.
• Reading: the documents are scans. Every declaration has been checked by hand against the PDF, including the Remarks box, where some MPs continue the list of properties: the counts, the share owned of each property, its type, whether it was inherited or bought and whether rental income is declared all come from that review, not from the automatic reading, which made too many mistakes. Each asset named counts as one («home, parking space and storage room» are three). Each MP links to their declaration so it can be checked.
• Rental income: the form has no box for it; it is detected from the description of each income item («alquiler», «arrendamiento», «capital inmobiliario»…). Amounts are as declared, some net, others gross and a few monthly, so they are neither added up nor compared. Imputed income from homes available for own use does not count as rental income.
• Whole urban properties: sum of the ownership share of each urban property (homes, garages, storage rooms, commercial premises, building plots); when it is recorded as marital property or co-owned without a percentage, half is counted. The form does not ask for the value of the properties, so a flat in central Madrid and a house in a village count the same.
• Taxpayers: Spanish Tax Agency, Personal income tax filers statistics, item 102 (income from let property), common-regime territory. The unit is the return, which may be joint, not the person.