With property prices skyrocketing, renting is the only way that thousands of Spaniards have to find a home. However, in a context marked by the general rise in prices, even leasing is becoming a less accessible option. For this reason, when choosing your first or next rental home, you must take into account multiple factors so as not to end up paying more than necessary for accommodation that does not fully adapt to your needs. The real estate portal has created a guide to find your ideal rental.
Define some search criteria
The first step to find the rental that best suits your needs is to define some search criteria. The main ones are: the area, the type of home, the estimated price, the age or condition of the home and the characteristics of the property (furnished or not; number of rooms; parking or storage room…). Beyond the home itself, Fotocasa recommends visiting the neighborhood in which it is located to see if it meets your needs in terms of transportation, green areas, schools and shops, and the neighborhood atmosphere.
Determine what monthly budget you can allocate to rent
To find out what rent you can afford with your salary, there are several mechanisms. One of the best known is the 30% rule, which establishes that the rental price must not exceed one third of the gross monthly income. The bank, for its part, raises this percentage to 35% of monthly income. But there are also other methods that can help us in this task, such as the 40 times rule.
The 40-fold rule relates the monthly rental expense to the worker’s annual salary. In other words, based on this premise, the tenant should divide his net annual salary by 40 and allocate that amount to the payment of the housing lease. Likewise, in that budget it is advisable to include the deposit and the monthly expenses on supplies.
Choose the most convenient type of landlord
When renting, it is possible to do so through different types of landlords. These are the advantages and negative points of each of them.
-Individuals: they allow negotiating the rental price more easily and do not entail paying commissions, but a series of precautions must be taken to ensure a clean and deceit-free process, advises Fotocasa.
-Real estate agencies: they take care of a large part of the paperwork, but they charge commissions.
-Developers and builders: they are new construction homes and normally at lower prices than those in the area, although they are usually inflexible with prices and conditions.
-Banks : the prices are quite tight and they have a maintenance service, but Fotocasa warns that as they own many flats in the building, they can make decisions unilaterally and without consulting. In addition, it is usually difficult to negotiate rent or payments with them and they are ruthless in cases of non-payment or return of deposits.
Study the average rental price in the area
The real estate portal advises studying the average rental price in the area and other apartments with similar characteristics to find out if it is an expensive or cheap rental. To do this, you can inquire in various real estate portals and agencies.
Avoid these six mistakes
When renting a home, it is also important to avoid making these 6 mistakes that could lead to future problems with the landlord : signing without having seen the home, signing without checking the reliability of the landlord, signing without having read the conditions, not preparing an inventory, not making a written contract, and not making sure the landlord has posted the bond.
