PP voters join the majority to limit rental prices

BarcelonaThe first week of the election campaign has made it clear that one of the central issues of the race for the Moncloa will be housing. The Spanish government evidenced this with the approval, this Thursday, of the Maricarmen decree in the permanent deputation of Congress –where progressive forces hold an absolute majority–, which extends rental contracts for two years and suspends evictions of vulnerable people. Public opinion has also done so, with a show of strength in the streets during Wednesday's general strike and the demonstrations called throughout the territory, in a cry also for wages and purchasing power.

The ARA poll also evidences that the housing crisis is one of the key issues of the election campaign, with the capacity to generate consensus on some questions and accentuate the differences between the main parties. The consensus is, for example, much broader regarding the acceptance of placing caps on rental prices than when citizens of the State are asked if they would prohibit the eviction of vulnerable families. Of the 1,200 surveyed by YouGov, 46% are in favor of prohibiting these evictions, while 27% disagree or strongly disagree. The remaining 27% do not clearly position themselves on this measure.

Regarding the four main parties (PSOE, PP, Broad Front and Vox), only the far-right group led by Santiago Abascal presents a position clearly opposed to stopping the evictions of vulnerable people. Regarding Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP, it records 41% rejection of the ban. In contrast, among progressive forces, support for the measure reaches 68% among PSOE voters and 74% among those of the Broad Front. The PP is also the party among whose voters there is the most indecision: one in three respondents does not take a position.

Limiting rental prices arouses higher support and more marked polarization. The regulation, supported by the state housing law approved in 2023, is currently applied in Catalonia (PSC), the Basque Country (PNB), Navarre (PSOE), Asturias (PSOE) and Galicia (PP), the five autonomous communities that have requested it.

62% of respondents are in favor of limiting rental prices, while only one in five (20%) opposes it. If the responses are analyzed by party, 85% of respondents close to the PSOE are in favor of limiting prices and therefore maintaining the housing law. Among those from the Broad Front, support for the regulation is almost unanimous (96%).

Among PP voters, four out of ten (40%) are in favor of limiting prices, compared to 32% who are against it. And among Vox voters, the only party with a majority against the housing law, 45% declare themselves against the caps, compared to 35% who support them.

In the first campaign events it has already been seen that housing will play an important role during the next fifteen days. An example of this is Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP), who has made public this week the electoral roadmap of the party he leads, with 14 sectoral measures that include the repeal of the housing law and the elimination of stressed areas and reference indices for rental prices.