Almost a year after the reference price index that seeks to stop abusive rentals, The Government has approved a sanctioning regime to boost its application, A very claimed step by housing defense entities and has enervated the real estate sector.
Catalonia became on March 15, 2024 in the first autonomous community (and the only one so far) to implement this index, the star measure of the law by the right to housing to stop the climbing of the rental price that makes it difficult The life of many families.
Income control It was applied in a first stage to the area of Barcelona and the provincial or region capitalsan area that expanded last October until they cover 271 municipalities, where 90% of the population lives.
The rental top basically affects large holders (those who have more than 5 homes) and the new contracts of apartments that have been without renting the last five years. The owners who jump it can now receive fines of up to 900,000 euros.
The real estate sector, on a war footing
Since its irruption, the index has not left anyone indifferent and has caused the frontal opposition of the real estate sector, which has warned again and again that will cause the massive withdrawal of floors from the rental market, which will make prices even rise.
The idealistic real estate portal criticized, for example, that the reference index gives prices a third lower than those of the market, placing them in 2017 values; While Real Estate Agents (API) of Catalonia placed the difference in 20% on average.
In this context, The arrival of the sanctions has marked the beginning of a second assault in this particular pulse between the Generalitat and the real estate sector.
The Association of Owners of Catalonia has branded the fines of “disproportionate” and has reproached the Government that he is more interested “in the holder”, than in searching “solid solutions that facilitate more rental floors in the market.”
“Sanction the owners will only aggravate the problem of access to housing,” says this entity, which groups about 300 small and medium -sized owners of Catalonia that rent real estate.
Both this association and the API have assured that the sanctioning regime does nothing more than “Criminalize” small and medium owners.
The API spokesman, Carles Sala, has warned that fines will also cause an increase in room rental, since “It will discourage” both the usual and seasonal lease by “frightening” the small owners.
“The fines are disproportionate. They exceed 6 or 7 -year income of many rentals and even the amount of flash purchase”holds.
For its part, the Catalan employer of the builders, APCE, has been critical of the housing policy of both Catalonia and the State, and its president, Xavier Vilajoana, has urged the administrations to “stop thinking about votes “To advance in the solution of access to housing, which is convinced, it goes to build more housing.
The Llogateres Syndicat claims inspectors
For its part, the Unionat de Llogateres greeted the arrival of the index, but reproached the Generalitat for the lack of a powerful campaign of information to disseminate its existence and a sanctioning regime that would guarantee its application and pursue those who skip it.
Once the sanctions are approved, this entity now urges the Government to accelerate the hiring of inspectors to “effectively control breaches in the maximum rental price.”
He has also claimed that “the seasonal rental problem is over”, considering that there are still incentives to use it massively and skip price regulation.
The most serious sanctions
The sanctioning regime, agreed by the executive of Salvador Illa and the Communs, contemplates Typify in the 2007 Housing Law three new sanctions as “very serious”, that is, with fines between 90.001 and 900,000 euros.
This is the following assumptions: set a rental price of a certain house more than 30% above marking by the reference index; for not stating the purpose of the lease in the contract, or doing it fraudulently; and for loading the contract management expenses to the tenant, instead of the owner.
Two other breaches typified as “serious”, that is, sanctionable with between 9,001 and 90,000 euros are: set the rent above those provided for in the index, provided that the increase does not exceed 30 %; and do not record the contract or the amount of the previous contract in the contract or offer.
Provisional index balance
In a first balance of the application of the reference index, the rental price in Catalonia fell between 3% and 5% in interannual terms in the first half of 2024, although in parallel There was a drop in contracts, according to the data of the Generalitat.
In the city of Barcelona, the epicenter of the increases, The average price of new rentals fell 5.2%, about 60 euros, between the first quarter of 2024 (1,193.4 euros) and the second (1,131.8).
The real estate portals question these figures and ensure that the income has continued to grow in Barcelona while warning of the withdrawal of homes from the rental market.
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