IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2602.08631.html

Effectiveness of Rent Controls: Evidence from Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Perez Garcia

Abstract

Growing concerns about housing affordability have prompted the adoption of rent control policies and renewed debates over their effectiveness. This paper provides the first empirical evaluation of the 2024 rent control policy implemented in Catalonia under Spain's new national housing law. To identify the causal effect of the policy on the rental market, I use municipality-level administrative data and implement several difference-in-differences strategies and event study designs. The results point to a reduction in tenancy agreements and a less robust decrease in rental price growth. While the findings highlight important short-term consequences of rent control, they also underscore the need for caution due to data limitations and limited robustness in some estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Perez Garcia, 2026. "Effectiveness of Rent Controls: Evidence from Spain," Papers 2602.08631, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2602.08631
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.08631
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Mense & Claus Michelsen & Konstantin A. Kholodilin, 2019. "The Effects of Second-Generation Rent Control on Land Values," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 385-388, May.
    2. Joan Monràs & José Garcia Montalvo, 2021. "The effect of second generation rent controls: New evidence from Catalonia," Economics Working Papers 1836, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2022.
    3. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    4. Breidenbach, Philipp & Eilers, Lea & Fries, Jan, 2022. "Temporal dynamics of rent regulations – The case of the German rent control," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Jofre-Monseny, Jordi & Martínez-Mazza, Rodrigo & Segú, Mariona, 2023. "Effectiveness and supply effects of high-coverage rent control policies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. David H. Autor & Christopher J. Palmer & Parag A. Pathak, 2014. "Housing Market Spillovers: Evidence from the End of Rent Control in Cambridge, Massachusetts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(3), pages 661-717.
    7. Sims, David P., 2007. "Out of control: What can we learn from the end of Massachusetts rent control?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 129-151, January.
    8. Edward L. Glaeser & Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 2003. "The Misallocation of Housing Under Rent Control," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1027-1046, September.
    9. Jack Favilukis & Pierre Mabille & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2023. "Affordable Housing and City Welfare," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 293-330.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiang, Hanchen & Quintero, Luis & Yang, Xi, 2025. "Does rent control increase tenant unemployment?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Jofre-Monseny, Jordi & Martínez-Mazza, Rodrigo & Segú, Mariona, 2023. "Effectiveness and supply effects of high-coverage rent control policies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Chen, Ruoyu & Jiang, Hanchen & Quintero, Luis E., 2023. "Measuring the value of rent stabilization and understanding its implications for racial inequality: Evidence from New York City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Kholodilin, Konstantin A., 2024. "Rent control effects through the lens of empirical research: An almost complete review of the literature," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Vera Baye & Valeriya Dinger, 2024. "Investment incentives of rent controls and gentrification: Evidence from German micro data," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 52(3), pages 843-884, May.
    6. Gillespie, Tom & Kren, Janez & Lyons, Ronan C. & O’Toole, Conor, 2025. "The supply side effects of rent controls: Evidence from Ireland," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Lukas Hauck, Nicola Stalder, Simon Büchler, Maximilian von Ehrlich, 2025. "Incidence, Allocation, and Efficiency Costs of Tenancy Rent Control," Diskussionsschriften dp2507, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    8. Joan Monràs & José Garcia Montalvo, 2021. "The effect of second generation rent controls: New evidence from Catalonia," Economics Working Papers 1836, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2022.
    9. Miguel-Ángel López García, 2023. "Controles de alquileres," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 246(3), pages 165-206, September.
    10. Mense, Andreas & Michelsen, Claus & Kholodilin, Konstantin A., 2023. "Rent Control, Market Segmentation, and Misallocation: Causal Evidence from a Large-Scale Policy Intervention," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. Breidenbach, Philipp & Eilers, Lea & Fries, Jan, 2022. "Temporal dynamics of rent regulations – The case of the German rent control," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    12. Rainald Borck & Niklas Gohl, 2021. "Gentrification and Affordable Housing Policies," CESifo Working Paper Series 9454, CESifo.
    13. Alessio Sardo & Gianluca Cerruti & Arnulfo Daniel Mateos Durán & Allegra Grillo, 2024. "The judicial response to rent controls in Europe: Protecting property rights against state’s intervention?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 221-281, October.
    14. Buurma-Olsen, Jennifer & Koster, Hans R.A. & van Ommeren, Jos & Damsté, Jort Sinninghe, 2025. "Quantifying misallocation of public housing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    15. Seltzer, Lee, 2024. "Effects of financing constraints on maintenance investments in rent-stabilized apartments," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Joan Monràs & José García-Montalvo, 2022. "The Effect of Rent Controls along the 'Excess' Price Distribution," Working Papers 1345, Barcelona School of Economics.
    17. Noemi Schmitt & Frank Westerhoff, 2022. "Speculative housing markets and rent control: insights from nonlinear economic dynamics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 17(1), pages 141-163, January.
    18. Koo, Kang Mo & Kim, Jinyoo, 2025. "Putting a ceiling on housing costs: The aftermath of nationwide rent control in the case of jeonse system in Korea," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Breidenbach, Philipp & Eilers, Lea & Fries, Jan Ludwig, 2019. "Rent control and rental prices: High expectations, high effectiveness?," Working Papers 07/2018, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    20. Stacy, Christina & Hodge, Timothy R. & Komarek, Timothy M. & Davis, Christopher & Stern, Alena & Noble, Owen & Morales-Burnett, Jorge & Rogin, Amy, 2025. "Rent control and the supply of affordable housing," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2602.08631. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.