Public rental housing

🏘️ Public rental housing

How many homes owned by public administrations are let at below-market rents to people who meet certain requirements: those of the autonomous communities and their public companies, and those of local councils. Everything is shown per 1,000 inhabitants or as a % of households, so that regions and countries of very different sizes can be compared.

Social rental housing: Spain 1.1 EU 8 (2022)OECD 7.1 (2022)France 14 (2018)Portugal 1.1 (2021)Germany 2.6 (2021)Italy 2.4 (2022)US 3.6 Netherlands 34.1 (2021)Austria 23.6Denmark 21.3 (2022) % of total housing stock · 2019 · OECD (Affordable Housing Database, PH4.2) All countries →

How many there are

In 2023 the Ministry of Housing asked the autonomous communities and the local councils of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants how many homes they own and under what tenure. From those answers it estimates that Spain has some 318,000 public rental homes: 196,842 owned by the regions (the sum of their answers) and about 121,000 owned by local councils (a figure scaled up by population, because many did not answer). That is 6.6 per 1,000 inhabitants, reaching 1.72% of households.

The regions' rental stock went from 178,493 homes in 2019 to 196,842 in 2023, 10.3% more. There is no annual series: the Ministry has only carried out these two surveys.

The INE's Living Conditions Survey provides a long series, but a broader one: it counts households paying rent below the market price, which includes public housing but also company flats and reduced rents between private individuals (which is why it comes out higher).

How many are started each year

Provisional approvals are the first administrative step for a subsidised home: they show how many are launched each year and for what use. Between 2005 and 2008 an average of 18,138 subsidised rental homes were approved each year; between 2013 and 2017, 505; between 2019 and 2023, 3,741. Not all of them are public (private companies with subsidies also develop them) and not all end up being built.

Spain compared with other countries

The OECD gathers the figures supplied by governments themselves: social rental homes (rent below market and allocated by rules, not by price) as a % of the total housing stock. Spain reported 290,000 in 2019, 1.1% of the stock, among the lowest in the OECD; the EU average is 8.0% and the OECD average 7.1%.

Each country defines social housing in its own way (in the Netherlands it also covers below-market private rentals; in Austria, only main residences), so the comparison is only a guide. In the countries with the most social housing its share has fallen somewhat since 2010:

The Ministry also compares as a % of households (main residences) using data from Housing Europe and Eurostat. For Spain it uses the Living Conditions Survey, which measures something broader; the Ministry's own public stock figure is added so the two can be seen together:

By region

Known public rental homes per 1,000 inhabitants: those of the region (complete 2023 figure) plus those of the councils of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that answered the survey (partial figure). Click on a region to see its profile.

Excluding Ceuta and Melilla, the largest regional rental stocks per inhabitant are those of País Vasco, Extremadura, Principado de Asturias, Canarias; the smallest, those of Aragón, La Rioja, Cantabria, Castilla y León. In Castilla and León y Galicia the region has more homes intended for sale than for rent, and in others public-private partnership carries weight (public land with surface rights or a concession): it accounts for 73% of the regional rental stock in the Basque Country and 22% in Madrid.

By province

There is no official count of the regional stock by province: the regions report it as a single block. What is known by province is the municipal rental stock reported by the councils of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants (62 answered in 2023, 119 repeat their 2019 figure and 228 gave no figures). The map shows it per 1,000 inhabitants of the province; a blank province may have regional stock, or municipalities that did not answer.

In the single-province regions (and in Ceuta and Melilla) the regional stock is provincial and can be added to the municipal stock:

By municipality

Homes owned by local councils and their municipal companies (not including regional homes located in the municipality), in municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants with data.

By party

Subsidised housing is approved by the autonomous communities, although much of it is funded through the state housing plans. Adding up regions and years between 2005 and 2023, and assigning each year to the party governing the region on 1 July, the share of subsidised rental homes approved under each party is compared with the share of the population it governed (if all of them promoted the same amount per inhabitant, the ratio would be 1). Under the PP the ratio is 1.06 (15.7 homes per 100,000 inhabitants per year) and under the PSOE, 1.08 (16.1).

Change in the regional rental stock between 2019 and 2023, grouping the regions by the party that governed them halfway through that period:

This should be read with caution: there are few years and few regions per party, housing takes years to go from approval to handover (many homes delivered in one term were decided in the previous one), and the stock also changes through sales to tenants, transfers between administrations or different counts in each survey. Homes do not arrive one by one but in developments, so a statistical test like those on other pages makes no sense.

Methodology and sources

• Public rental stock: Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, Housing and Land Observatory, Special Bulletin on Social Housing 2024 (2023 social housing survey and, for 2019, the 2019 survey). "For rent" includes publicly owned homes and those under public-private partnership (public land with surface rights or a concession), low-cost assignment and temporary accommodation; it excludes rent-to-buy and sale. The 2023 national total is the sum of the regions (the bulletin gives a slightly lower figure in its trend table). The municipal stock only covers the councils of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that answered (or their 2019 figure if they did not); the Ministry scales it up by population for its national estimate. In Ceuta and Melilla the city is both region and council, and its stock is counted once.
• Provisional approvals of subsidised housing by tenure and region, 2005-2023, from the same bulletin.
• Households renting below market price: INE, Living Conditions Survey, table 9997. It is a survey: in the small regions the sample is small and the average of the last three years is shown.
• International comparison: OECD, Affordable Housing Database, indicator PH4.2 (% of the total housing stock, around 2010 and around 2022, with the OECD's own EU and OECD averages; for Spain it may include company housing) and table 2.1 of the Ministry's bulletin (Housing Europe and Eurostat, % of main residences).
• Population from the municipal register (INE) at 1 January 2023 and households from the Continuous Population Statistics; party of each regional government according to the SpainFacts table of presidents.