The Commons and the Government agree on a registry of large holders with fines of up to 90,000 euros for those who do not register.
They also unblocked the anti-birth unit, but Albiach's party sees this as insufficient to sit down and negotiate budgets.
BarcelonaThe Government and the Commons sealed an agreement this Monday to unblock two outstanding commitments from the negotiation of the credit supplements in the spring. These are, on the one hand, the anti-eviction unit, which will have a budget of almost €40 million between 2026 and 2030. This unit will assist people at risk of being evicted from their homes for being unable to pay their rent or mortgage, and the Government will approve it this Tuesday in the Executive Council. The other measure is the registry of large property owners, in which all legal entities or individuals with more than five homes must register. Those who fail to do so will face fines of between €9,000 and €90,000, covered by the regulations of the Housing Law. As explained by AHORA, the registry is expected to be approved in November and operational in December.
In a press conference from the Department of Territory, the leader of the Commons in the Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, celebrated that these are steps forward by the Government in the area of housing, spurred on by her group and the Renters' Union. The anti-eviction unit and the registry of large holders, which will also include the registry of empty apartments, are added to the agreement to incorporate 100 housing inspectors, as well as the increase up to 20% of the transfer tax for large holders agreed with the Government last April.
However, after sealing the agreement with the Regional Minister for Territory, Silvia Paneque, Albiach warned that today's agreement is not sufficient to sit down with the Government to discuss the budget, pending negotiations with ERC on one-off financing. The Commons regret that the executive is complying with housing agreements with a certain "reluctance"—it has not, for example, applied any sanctions to large holders—and that it still has agreements pending compliance arising from credit supplements in the areas of mobility, health, and education.
On the other hand, Albiach was suspicious of the announcement by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to study the prohibition of speculative housing purchases, a measure that the Commons proposed in the general policy debate and on which the Socialists abstained. "We are seeing a president who has become addicted to advertising," he lamented, recalling the 214,000-apartment announcement made by the Socialist during the general policy debate. which they also distrustHowever, he declined to say whether they would bring it up in future negotiations: "Speculative buying is an important step (...) We'll talk about it in the coming days," he said.
A publicly accessible record
Officially named the Residential Protection and Stability Service, the anti-eviction unit will have an allocation of 39,380,912 euros for the next five years, with "at least" 50 officers before the end of 2025. The objective is for it to provide service throughout the local territory, through property owners and financial institutions. call centers which will be progressively activated in Barcelona, Girona, Lérida, Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre.
This service will incorporate a new figure called the Housing Referent, who will accompany those who are at risk of defaulting on rent or mortgage payments, and will present all the options available to them. "Now it happens that it is late, and the homeowner, or small owner, no longer wants the solution. We must intervene earlier," added the Commons MP Susanna Segovia, also at the press conference. In Catalonia, around 7,400 evictions were registered in 2024, a figure that increased by 3.2% compared to the previous year.
Regarding the register of large property owners, the Commons have agreed with the executive that it will be publicly accessible: anyone who enters a person's ID or tax identification number will be able to check whether they are a large property owner, in order to monitor whether they comply with the obligations imposed by law, for example, regarding the maximum allowance. Regarding income containment and in the tax area, anyone with more than five homes is considered a large property owner. Regarding the obligation to offer social rent, it applies to owners of more than 10 or 15 apartments (in the latter case, if they are a natural person).
