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Thursday, 29 July 2010
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Moving to Barcelona E-mail

Rooms, flats, apartments in Barcelona


Moving to Barcelona.

If you are moving to Barcelona, then your first priority is finding a place to live in Barcelona that fits your budget.  Finding long term rental flats or rooms in Barcelona is really not that difficult, but it helps if you know, which websites  and rental agencies are best for finding rooms, flats and houses in Barcelona. There are different types of accommodation for different needs; students need to rent rooms in a shared flats, long term residents will need long term furnished or unfurnished rental flats, and overseas residents might want to buy a flat in Barcelona as a second home.
In this article we have listed comments and links to all kinds of longer term accommodation websites and reputable agencies, that we hope will be useful everyone moving to Barcelona for a longer stay.


Scroll down this page page to the section that you are interested in:


Barcelona accommodation Rooms for long term rent in shared flats in Barcelona

Barcelona accommodation Long term rental flats / apartments in Barcelona  

Barcelona accommodation Short term flats and apartments in Barcelona

Barcelona accommodation Buying flats, apartments and houses in Barcelona







Rooms for rent in shared flats in Barcelona


   Click for listings to websites with long term  rooms in shared flats in Barcelona

Renting rooms in shared flats is very common in Barcelona.  Many young people in Barcelona cannot afford their own flat. They have to either stay at home with their parents, or share a flat with other young people in Barcelona. For young foreigners, who come to Barcelona to work or study, renting a room in a shared flat is an easy, fast and cheap solution. The contract for a room in a shared flat will normally be  an quite informal agreement with the flat owner. The monthly rent is always paid in advance. The normal deposit is 1 months rent. So when you move in, you would normally have to pay 2 months rent and you will get the deposit amount back when you vacate the room, if you leave the room in the same condition as it was, when you moved in. Rented rooms are almost always furnished. The furnished rooms are usually quite spartan, but you can always visit the Mecca of affordable Scandinavian style, IKEA, to get a few extra things.

   Click here to find the two IKEAS stores to the north and south of Barcelona and other furniture stores

In a shared flat you often live with 2-4 other tenants. There is a good chance some of them are native Spanish speakers either from Spain or Latin America, which will help you practise the Spanish that many are learning at Spanish schools in Barcelona. Sharing with other tenants means your roommates can also help you with lots of other practical things in Barcelona like getting around,  where the best Barcelona nightlife is, and other practical tips. The only downside to sharing is – well, is that you are sharing! Sharing means everyone has to agree on some ground rules about things like having visitors over, sharing bills, using phones and so on. Reaching agreement on this can be a sometimes painful but useful education in co-existence and tolerance and peace love and misunderstanding!  

   Check list of things to consider when choosing flats and rooms in Barcelona
   Listings of websites that have rooms for rent in shared flats in Barcelona 












Long term rental flats/apartments in Barcelona


There are many flats and apartments available for long term rentals in Barcelona and there are several ways to find them.

   Click here for listings to websites that offer long term flat rentals in Barcelona

One way is to walk around the area of Barcelona, that you want to live in,  looking upwards for signs that  advertise flats for rent. These are usually long term rentals.  Look for the words  “piso en alquiler” or “pis en lloguer”, which both mean “flat for rent” in Spanish and Catalan respectively. A faster way and one that avoids neck pains,  is to visit accommodation websites in Barcelona.  This is simply faster and you will get a full description of the flat often with pictures. For long term rentals in Barcelona, we recommend that you consider using rental agencies, unless you are renting from friends or family.

The reason that we recommend this is that the sums of deposit money can be quite big when renting long term and it is simply safer to use an agency and get a proper rental contract. The usual contract term is for a long term rental in Barcelona is 5 years total with a 1 year minimum period. That means you can leave after 1 year and stay for up to 5 years. Most owners expect you to pay the full first year if you leave anytime during the first year.The monthly rent is usually adjusted upwards by a very small amount on an annual basis, but a major price change can only happen after 5 years.
The usual payment terms for a renting a long term flat or apartment in Barcelona are:

-1 month rent in advance,
-1 month rent for the property agency (ex IVA tax 16%)
-1 or 2 months of deposit for the owner
---------------------------------------------------------
= Total up to 5 months rent in advance of which most is refundable, when you leave.


The rental terms can of course vary from agent to agent and owner to owner.  Some agents charge a % of the first years rent,  instead of one months rent. Many owners are looking for financially reliable tenants. Generally if you already live in Barcelona and have a job with a contract and official pay slips, then it is enough to show solvency by providing copies of your last 3 months of pay slips and a copy of the previous year’s tax return. However, if you have just arrived in Barcelona and do not have a job or credit history, then the owner can quite rightly be nervous that you might choose not to stay in Barcelona, or that you might not be able to get a job or that something else could happen that might prevent you from paying the rent.

If you skip town without paying the rent, then the owner will lose money and will have the hassle of finding new tenants. To try and avoid this and to find the “financially viable” tenants, it is quite typical that owners of flats for long term rent in Barcelona ask future tenants to provide an “Aval bancario," which is a bank guarantee.If you agree to an “Aval bancario,” then you as the future tenant will have to deposit an amount equivalent to 3-6 or even 12 months rent with a Spanish bank and then the bank can step in with your aval money and act as a guarantor, should you be unable to pay the rent.

The “Aval bancario” is a  really just an extra form of deposit or security for the owner.  If you do not want to give the owner an Aval, then you might offer to pay an extra deposit or even pay some months of rent in advance. The main disadvantage of the Aval bancario is that this amount is usually only returned when you vacate the flat in Barcelona and that could be a few years.  Some owners might accept an aval that is only valid for the first year. That way the owner has an chance to get to know you. After a year of rent payments perhaps the owner will have greater trust in your ability to keep up the rent payments and you can dissolve the Aval.

   Click here websites and agencies with long term flat rentals in Barcelona









Short term tourist flats /apartments in Barcelona


   Websites that offer tourist apartments in Barcelona

Renting holiday apartments in Barcelona has become a very popular alternative to hotels.  Renting an apartment in Barcelona is not much cheaper for singles or couples, but for groups and companies attending trade fairs it provides much more more space and freedom and big savings. There are many reputable and experienced holiday apartment rental agencies in Barcelona that offer tourist apartments and rent by days flats and apartments in Barcelona.

   Click here for listings of websites that offer tourist apartments in Barcelona








Buying flats, apartments & houses in Barcelona


   Listings for buying property in Barcelona

Buying property in Barcelona can be both profitable and rewarding. Barcelona has seen a dramatic rise in visitors to Barcelona in the 15 years, since the Olympics in 1992 thanks to the world attention the games brought and also to the many low-cost flights into Barcelona, Girona and Reus airports. As a place to buy a second homes Barcelona is a huge favourite in Europe. Many visitors have become permanent residents of Barcelona or have chosen to buy flats and apartments in Barcelona. It is a great investment which can be used on weekend breaks and rented out by the many short term rental companies when the owners are not using it. There are many “agencias immobiliarios” (real estate agencies) in Barcelona. We have collected links to the agencies that are recommended and can offer services in English and other languages.

   FInd real estate agents in Barcelona 




 



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