Access to housing continues to be one of the biggest headaches for Spaniards in 2026, a year in which, far from improving their situation, it rather worsens seeing how the price of housing once again sets a new record. Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Housing, led by Isabel Rodríguez, announced a series of measures at the beginning of the year to try to at least stop the rise in rental prices, such as offering a 100% personal income tax credit to those owners who do not raise the rent.
Rubén Zaballos, a well-known businessman and owner of 200 properties who usually participates in the program ‘La Sexta Xplica’, wanted to talk about this measure. The CEO of the Mcontigo Group gave his opinion on the measure that in reality what owners need is a reliable tenant, more than a bonus in personal income tax or maximum profitability.
The young owner explained in an intervention in ‘La Sexta
“In the last 5 years I have made 148 contracts”
During his speech, he detailed his experience in the rental market: “In the last five years, I have formalized 148 long-term contracts at 300 euros per month more or less to give you an idea.” According to him, these were homes located in Galicia, mainly apartments with two or three bedrooms.
He also specified that these properties are located in cities of about 200,000 inhabitants and that “they have a garage and storage room, they are a housing option for certain people.”
However, he wanted to make it clear that this type of affordable rental is not available to all investors: “if you buy an apartment for 300,000 euros, you are not going to set the rent at 300 euros.”
In this sense, he defended the role of large investors against individuals: “What I’m saying is that professional investors have the ability to negotiate and renovate houses in better conditions and then we can make them cheaper than individual investors.”
For Rubén, this model is not harmful, but quite the opposite: “it is not bad”, since it represents “a very positive option so that there is more housing supply.”
More than profitability: peace of mind
Despite this, he insisted that what the owners really demand is legal security: “I don’t care so much that a tenant pays me 100 euros or so, but what I want is peace of mind.”
In his case, he explained that the pressure does not come only from having several homes, but from the associated obligations: “I have many mortgages and I have the obligation to pay them every month, all the expenses, the payroll…”.
Hence, he recognizes a concern shared by many owners: “I cannot go to bed at night thinking that I may have tenants who stop paying me and in the end you cannot enter the house.”
Criticism of the political climate and housing management
Although he has numerous properties, Rubén defines himself as a private owner. In fact, he even stated that in 2026 he intended to “sell all my apartments.”
This decision would be motivated, in part, by his disagreement with the current situation: “the climate that I am seeing in this country”, as well as by his perception that housing “is being managed terribly” from the political sphere.
In this context, many owners fear situations such as squatters, which reinforces the idea that tax savings are not their main concern.
This is what he reiterated when evaluating the Government’s measures: “I don’t want to pay less taxes; that really doesn’t matter to me at all, because, if I pay taxes, it means I earn money. But what I do want is security.”
Finally, he launched a direct request to the Executive: “what the Government must do is take measures so that we can protect ourselves from tenants who, for whatever reason, destroy our home or do not pay us rent.”