BALEARIC HOUSING RENT UP BY 4.2%

MADRID
THE cost of renting a home to live in in the Balearic Islands has gone up by an average of 4.2 percent over the last twelve months.
A report published yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics said that the figures were confirmed by making comparison between data for October this year and the same month in 2006.

Across Spain as a whole however, the same source said that housing rents were up by an average of 4.5 percent over the past year, nine decimal points above the cost of living index (IPC).

Only last month, rent prices went up 0.4 percent, compared against a rise of 1.3 percent registered for the IPC. So far this year (from January to the present date), an average rent rise of 3.7 percent has been recorded against a cost of living index increase of 3 percent. Materials needed for home maintenance have become dearer to a greater extent this year than the pro rata rent rise, with a growth of 5.4 percent over the last year, and 5.1 percent during the first 10 months of this year.

A similar trend was revealed in the price of services related to the home which have grown by 4.6 percent over the past twelve months, 4.5 percent so far this year. The regions where rents have increased the most during the past year were Catalonia (5.8 percent); Aragon (5.3 percent) and Madrid (5.2%). At the other end of the scale, the regions which experienced the lowest average increase in rents were Extremadura (1.4 percent) and Murcia (1.4 percent). The table above shows the annual variation in average rent levels according to the National Institute of Statistics.