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Formula 1 drives up accommodation prices beside Madring
Formula 1 has not yet started in Madrid, but its effect is already felt around Ifema. Two weeks before the Grand Prix, available accommodation in Valdebebas and Hortaleza has reduced its supply and some owners have multiplied their rates several times over for nights from 11 to 14 September.
One of the most striking cases is in Valdebebas. A four-bedroom chalet with six beds, a swimming pool and a garden is offered for €17,661 for the three nights of the race weekend. Booking the same home between 30 August and 2 September costs €3,341: just over one fifth.
The difference is even clearer in an apartment in Hortaleza prepared for seven people. Three nights from 4 to 7 September cost €718, but moving exactly the same stay to the Formula 1 weekend raises the bill to €4,077.
Proximity has become one of the main selling points. Advertisements highlight distances of a few hundred metres to Madring, the possibility of walking to Ifema and even direct views towards parts of the course such as La Monumental. Property portals already list rentals advertised expressly for the race for €17,000 or €20,000.
Most available options do not reach those extremes, though they are not cheap either. A search conducted at the end of August finds tourist flats near the circuit at between roughly €1,000 and €5,000 for three nights. Hotels in Hortaleza that still have availability range approximately between €1,000 and €2,500 for a double room over the same period.
Airbnb recalls that hosts themselves set rates and that adjusting them when demand rises is also common in the hotel sector. The platform also warns that the most expensive advertisements are precisely homes that have not yet been booked, so they should not be interpreted as the real average market price.
The fever has reached even smaller services. Parking spaces in Valdebebas are already advertised for €300, €350 or €400 for the days of the race, some only a few minutes’ walk from the circuit. The need to sleep and park close to Madring is thus creating a small parallel economy around the event.
For residents, the transformation is not limited to accommodation. September will bring tens of thousands of fans, mobility controls and far greater activity than usual around Valdebebas and Ifema, after months in which works and circuit tests have already changed part of the area’s routine.
The weekend of 11 to 13 September will thus leave two different races in north-east Madrid. One will be on the Madring tarmac; the other is already being contested on the screens of those looking for somewhere to sleep, where finding a home still free can end up costing several times more than it would a week earlier.