Renting with pets: Pacma wants blanket bans stopped

Only 4% of rental adverts on property portal Fotocasa explicitly allowed pets in 2023: Pacma now wants Spain’s government to stop blanket bans on animals in rental contracts. The animal welfare party made its call in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday, 29 September, as the government prepares a new housing decree.

Pacma wants people renting their main home to have the right to live with pets. Tenants would still have to care for their animals, respect neighbours and pay for damage their pets actually cause. The party also wants public housing policies and emergency accommodation to take account of families with animals, so they do not have to separate.

Pacma says finding a home with a dog or cat adds another hurdle when rents are high and available homes are scarce. Its Fotocasa figure covers adverts that explicitly allowed pets, not every landlord willing to accept them: 58% of landlords surveyed by the portal said they would do so.

The party also points to figures from the Affinity Foundation. Adoption rates in 2025 were 42.9% for dogs and 41.9% for cats, both lower than the year before. The foundation listed a change of home or a move as a reason for giving up an animal in 11.9% of cases where the reason was known. Pacma acknowledges those figures cannot show how much, if any, rental restrictions contributed to the fall in adoptions.

Topics: Court cases · Housing · Economy

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com