Does the rent you pay adjust to the characteristics of your apartment? Comparing it with the ads in your neighborhood can give you a first impression, but there is another public tool to consult a reference. Is called State Reference System for Housing Rental Prices, SERPAVIand is available on the website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda.
The consultation gains interest with the new decrees approved after the eviction of Maricarmen and the mobilizations for housing. However, it is good to know what it offers before entering the address. The system shows a price rangenot a figure that all owners must automatically apply.
How to check the reference price of your home
To begin, you must enter the official SERPAVI website and locate the property using its full address or cadastral reference. The page itself links to the Cadastre services to facilitate the search for this identifier.
The calculation takes into account the location and characteristics of the home. The methodology includes the surface and a questionnaire about its conditions, with elements such as the availability of elevator. Therefore, two nearby floors do not necessarily have the same result.
After the query is completed, the user can obtain the corresponding report. The page also allows you to recover a previously generated document using its code. Saving it makes it easier to compare the reference with the contract rent or with the asking price for a home that you are considering renting.
Being above the range does not always mean charging illegal rent
The tool itself explains that its values have, in general, a indicative function to set the income of new contracts. Its application as a limit depends on the circumstances of the property and the lease.
In the declared areas of stressed residential marketthe upper end of the range functions as a limit in new contracts from large holders. It can also be applied to homes that have not been rented during the previous five years, in the terms provided by the regulations and the declaration of the area.
To evaluate a specific case it is necessary to check, therefore, where the home is, when the contract was signed, who the owner is and if there was a previous rental. The income from the previous contract may also determine the amount allowed.
An example helps to understand it. If the report placed a home between 700 and 900 euros and the tenant paid 1,100, there would be a difference of 200 euros compared to the upper end. This calculation would allow the distance with the reference to be detected, but by itself it would not demonstrate that there is an improper charge or an automatic right to recover that money.
What changes with the housing decrees
The call “Maricarmen decree” It is part of a package divided into two standards. He Royal Decree-Law 26/2026published on September 30, includes protection against certain evictions of vulnerable people without a housing alternative until December 31, 2030in addition to changes in temporary and room rentals.
In the latter, it establishes that the sum of the rents from simultaneous partial contracts cannot exceed that of the unit rental of the entire home. In stressed areas, it adds the obligation to respect the rent limitations provided for in the Urban Leases Law.
It also requires a real and accreditable cause for temporary rental. The purpose is to prevent this modality from being used to cover a permanent need for housing, evading the guarantees of regular rental.
He second decree, published this Thursday, October 1addresses the continuity of contracts. It provides for renewals for periods of five or seven years, depending on the type of lessor, unless communication of non-renewal is made in accordance with the established requirements.
Furthermore, it contemplates a compensation when the owner decides not to extendwith exceptions. To calculate it, the text refers, whenever possible, to the state reference system for renting a home with similar characteristics. This is another use of this tool, different from setting the monthly payment of the contract.
Friday’s vote will decide the continuity of the measures
The two decrees face validation in this Congress Friday October 2. According to information collected by Europa Press this Thursday, the PNV supports the general decree and rejects the automatic renewal decreewhile the support of tenant unions has facilitated the support of left-wing partners.
The position of Together remains decisive for the general text. Therefore, the news must be read keeping in mind that its continuity is pending a parliamentary vote.
For those who want to review their rental, the first step is to obtain the report and compare it with the contract and with the declaration of stressed area, if it exists. The result of the website does not by itself modify the agreed income. If differences and doubts arise regarding the applicable limit, these documents allow you to raise a specific query with a housing office or a professional.