Here comes the second derivative of tense housing areas: the subsidies

BarcelonaThe rent cap has taken up almost all the media attention, but the declaration of a stressed residential market area (ZMRT) provides for other instruments to facilitate access to housing. This Wednesday, the Spanish government announced direct subsidies to these territories, as established by the state housing law: it intends to distribute 90 million euros among the five autonomous communities that have applied the measure. Of this figure, Catalonia will receive 60 million, as it concentrates 75% of the population living in an area where the housing market is stressed, and 85.5% of the municipalities.

This is the first time that Pedro Sánchez's executive has taken action on extraordinary aid for ZMRTs stipulated by the state law, approved in May 2023. In fact, the text establishes that the rent cap is "a mechanism of an exceptional and time-limited nature," conceived in order to "grant the competent administrations the necessary time to compensate for the deficit in supply, or to correct with other housing policies the shortcomings of the areas declared as stressed residential markets".

The minister in charge, Isabel Rodríguez, explained this Wednesday that the direct subsidies "will serve to promote more public housing, to build more public housing, to renovate existing housing and dedicate it to affordable rent, to acquire land from municipalities or individuals and to be able to build". She stressed that administrations will also be able to use the resources to buy already built housing and, sarcastically, added: "It is about buying housing for the people, not about buying penthouses for the presidents", referring to the scandal surrounding Madrid's Díaz Ayuso.

Apart from Catalonia, aid will also be directed to Euskadi, which will receive 15.5 million; Navarra, 6.6 million; Galicia, 5.1 million; and Asturias, 2.9 million. Currently, on the list of municipalities declared ZMRT there are 317 localities: in addition to the 271 Catalan ones, 21 are Navarrese, 18 Basque, two Galician, and five Asturian. The ministry published the latest update of the catalogue – at the request of the regional governments – at the end of July.

Does the Generalitat fine offenders?

That same week in July the Generalitat reviewed the Catalan municipalities included in the list: it removed 22 and added 53. Until now, two declarations had been made. For those in the first batch, the qualification will expire in March 2027, and the Government wants to avoid exhausting the deadline. With this objective, it has reviewed the evolution of purchase and rental prices in all Catalan municipalities: it has studied which ones have stopped complying with the conditions to be qualified ZMRT, where the qualification must be renewed, and which cases now meet the requirements to be admitted to the list.

The socialist executive, despite boasting about applying the ZMRT, has not detailed how many fines have been imposed on owners and large holders for violating the norm. Since the Generalitat approved the sanctioning regime at the beginning of 2025 to punish offenders, only fines to three large holders, that is, owners of more than five homes each.

What other instruments does the ZMRT declaration allow?

The state housing law establishes personal income tax (IRPF) reductions for landlords who rent out apartments located in areas with a tense residential market. If they set a price lower than that of the last contract, the reduction can reach 90%, and if it is a property that was not previously on the market and they rent it to young people up to 35 years old, the reduction is 70%.

Likewise, the state law requires regional governments to develop a "specific plan" with the necessary measures to correct the imbalances that have caused the tension in the residential market of some of their municipalities.