Green light from Congress to begin processing the law presented by the parties to the left of the PSOE to regulate and establish limits on seasonal and room rentals. This Tuesday, the Lower House approved by majority the taking into consideration of the norm, which will now be debated and amended by the groups in committee. And he did it with the votes of Juntswhich gave its support to start the process three months after having knocked down an almost identical initiative at the last minute and by surprise, a decision that then cost it harsh criticism even from those closest to it.
Those of Carles Puigdemont, of course, made it clear during this Tuesday’s debate in Congress that their favorable vote does not guarantee their support when the final text is voted on. In fact, deputy Marta Madrenas demanded “substantial” changes to the standard to be able to support it if it finally ends up advancing in its processing, something that remains to be seen given the enormous differences between the Government’s parliamentary partners and between the PSOE itself and Sumar, differences that may end up blocking the progress of the text. “Today we say yes to the debate, but do not assume for a moment that this means a yes from Junts to this text,” Madrenas highlighted.
The deputy of the pro-independence group demanded that, instead of establishing limitations on owners so that they do not fraudulently use the figure of temporary or room rentals, “the public authorities should be the ones to develop housing policies and pay for them with public funds.” , that is why taxes are collected”. “Today we find ourselves again with a proposal that will cause a lot of frustration to those who really suffer from via crucis to access decent housing, because in good faith they will believe that this will improve their possibilities and they have to know that it will not be like that, that they are only trying to mask again the failure of the Government and its partners,” Madrenas snapped.
With less bellicosity, but along the same lines, the PNV spoke out, denouncing that the housing law approved in 2023 has not managed to lower rental prices, despite the fact that its main mechanism, price limitation, has only been applied in Catalonia (in Navarra and some municipalities of Euskadi it is beginning to be done now) and it has reduced rates. “With this law, legal insecurity is being generated for the owner and legal insecurity for those who want to rent a home and are forced to sign seasonal contracts,” said deputy Maribel Vaquero, who affirmed that the PNV’s support for this Tuesday’s initiative It is only limited to the need to “start processing” to present amendments.
On the contrary, the parties proposing the norm praised a text that should serve to “a few stop having privileges over the rights of many”, in the words of the representative of Sumar Gala Pin. “It is time for us to do things and do them quickly,” urged EH Bildu parliamentarian Oskar Matute, while the leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, assured that “the housing system” in Spain is “almost the same as violent as the health system in the United States.
Equate temporary rentals with stable ones
In short, what the bill intends to do is to equate habitual residence leases, at the level of obligations for owners and protection for tenants, with monthly rentals and those that affect a single room of a property. The ultimate objective of the initiative, according to its promoters, is to make it no longer attractive for many landlords to put their apartments on the temporary rental market, an avenue that right now allows them to bypass many of the safeguards for tenants.
Specifically, the bill establishes that, in contracts of temporary duration, the collection of agency fees from the tenant is prohibited, as well as that the amount of the deposit that the owners can demand is limited, which could not be higher than the value of half a monthly payment (in the case of renting a primary residence, the maximum deposit is two monthly payments). Furthermore, the reform states that price limits may apply which is already included in the housing law for stressed market areas, limits that, to date, have only been implemented in Catalonia, Navarra and some municipalities of the Basque Country since the communities governed by the PP and the rest of the led by the PSOE refuse to apply them.
In the same way, it is proposed to restrict the possibility of renting housing with a contract of less than the five-year duration established by law, something that could only be done, if the norm is approved, duly justifying the reason “and its connection with the planned duration”. “If they are not duly accredited, it will be presumed that said contract is for habitual housing”, with all that this implies: among other things, that the price cannot be raised beyond what is established by law during that time, establishes the bill.
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