Valencia's Housing Market under Pressure: Rent Inflation, Short-Term Rentals and the Assetization of Urban Housing

Valencia has experienced a marked deterioration in housing affordability during the past few years. This study examines that change through descriptive market evidence and the urban political economy literature on financialization, assetization and platform based rental activity. The empirical window runs from 2023 to 2026, a period of population growth, strong visitor demand, rising advertised rents and sale prices, and substantial changes in the local regulation of tourist accommodation. Advertised rents rose from EUR 11.5/m² per month in January 2023 to EUR 16.5/m² in October 2026. Advertised sale prices increased from EUR 2,636/m² in July 2024 to EUR 3,473/m² in September 2026. Over the same period, municipal data recorded a decline in registered tourist apartments from 10,516 to 9,057 after the 2024 moratorium and stronger enforcement, followed in 2026 by new planning rules based on saturation thresholds at neighbourhood, district and block level. Javier Gil's research on Valencia provides the main interpretive point of reference, complemented by work on rent gaps, financialization and tourist accommodation. The evidence suggests that the affordability problem cannot be explained by a shortage of new supply alone. It also involves competition between residential, tourist and medium term uses, increasingly professional rental intermediation and the treatment of housing as a flexible income producing asset. Local government can influence some of these margins through planning, enforcement, public housing, information systems and management of public assets, although tenancy law and important parts of housing regulation remain in regional and national hands.