Parliament unblocks seasonal rental regulation half a year later

BarcelonaSix months have passed since an unprecedented agreement was reached in the Parliament in April: the PSC, ERC, Comuns and also the CUP sealed an agreement. which allowed the Government to save its decree of urgent measures in the area of housingIn return, the Socialists agreed to adopt two measures they had previously been reluctant to adopt. One was the regulation of seasonal and room rentals, who were defeated by voting with Junts at the end of the previous legislature when Pere Aragonès's government decreed it in the nick of time. The other was the retroactive protection of social housing, which Salvador Illa's administration initially objected to for reasons of "legal certainty." However, the parliamentary process has smoothed out the rough edges, and finally, the PSC, ERC, Comuns, and the CUP have reached an agreement on the text that should specify these reforms, according to sources from the four parties told ARA.

The report's opinion, which affects several laws, will be voted on this Wednesday in the Parliament's territorial committee. This is an essential step before it reaches next week's plenary session, as decided this Tuesday by the board of spokespersons. The text, consulted by this newspaper, defines permanent housing as housing intended to satisfy the need for housing, "regardless of its duration," a clause intended to prevent this type of housing from continuing. being the gap that owners take advantage of to avoid rental price caps.

The text establishes that, even when the purpose is limited to a specific period, such as a lease linked to professional or educational reasons, or due to the inability to be at one's habitual residence, the regulations of the Housing Law on determining and updating the contract rent will apply. Only those that are truly temporary rentals linked to recreational or tourist uses will be excluded, circumstances that must be proven. Its wording is practically identical to what was approved by the ERC government, and which the PSC-Junts coalition overturned.

Furthermore, contracts executed fraudulently may be covered by the minimum legal duration for habitual residence contracts. Thus, in the case of "extensions of temporary leases for proven reasons," if the tenant does not prove the reason for the temporary lease and that they reside elsewhere, the extensions will be those of the Urban Leasing Law (LAU), starting from the start date of the contract. The same will apply if the landlord wishes to formalize a new contract with the same tenant under these circumstances. Regarding room rentals, the sum of the rents agreed upon for the same unit, even in different contracts, cannot exceed the maximum rent applicable to the unitary lease.

Legal Pitfalls

According to several sources consulted, the agreement on how to regulate seasonal rentals was already ready in the summer and had the approval of the Catalan government, while in recent months the four groups have been fine-tuning other elements of the report. For example, the protection of the classification of social housing so that it does not move to the open market after a certain number of years and, therefore, cease to be part of the public housing stock. According to some sources consulted, this has been one of the most difficult elements to achieve, because the Socialists continued to have doubts about whether it would be legally possible to protect it from possible appeals to the Constitutional Court. The final wording clearly states that the validity of the classification of social housing is "permanent," and that the validity periods are "obligatory" to extend when they are included in a stressed market area. Therefore, the 30-, 20-, and 10-year terms of the current wording of Article 47 of Decree 75/2014, the Plan for the Right to Housing, are eliminated.

The socialists' move follows the announcement by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to acquire 170 InmoCaixa homes, which were officially protected, for a value of 15 million euros, and could continue with the acquisition of 1,100 more apartmentsAccording to the Tenants' Union, the real estate company had begun applying abusive clauses once the twenty-year protection period had passed, and the company wanted to sell them at market price. The purchases at InmoCaixa were one of the measures taken by the ERC government. was launched at the end of the legislative period. In parallel, The government is considering banning "speculative home purchases.", a proposal that the Comuns (Communists) defended in the general policy debate (and where the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) abstained). Silvia Paneque, the Catalan government spokesperson and regional minister for Territory, explained on Tuesday that they will commission legal reports to study its feasibility.

More protected percentage

The proposal also gives legal status to the position of the housing inspector and mentions the registry of large landowners, which the government will create via decree. As agreed with Comuns (Communs), it will be ready in November, will also incorporate the registry of vacant homes, and will include fines of between 9,000 and 90,000 euros for owners of more than five homes who fail to register. Furthermore, it is planned to be "publicly accessible," so that anyone with the ID or NIF of an owner can check whether they are a large landowner and, therefore, are obliged to comply with the specifications of the housing law for this group.

Furthermore, the proposal proposes a reform of the urban planning law to increase the percentages that municipal urban development plans must reserve for public housing on newly implemented residential land: it will be 50% for conversions of developable land and 40% for projects on unconsolidated urban land (down to 0%). Furthermore, the report proposes that at least half of the land reserve should be allocated to social rentals, in line with the requests of ERC and Comunes to increase the public land dedicated to rentals. and not just betting on building apartments within the free market, one of their concerns with the announcement of 214,000 apartments that the Government wants to promote.

The Housing Lease Contract Oversight Commission, made up of representatives from the Government, has also been created. This committee will protect consumer rights and oversee digital platforms, real estate portals, and rental listings and tourist apartments.