The seven largest professional associations in the real estate sector in Catalonia announced yesterday that they have presented allegations to the resolution of the Generalitat that proposes the control of rental prices in 140 Catalan municipalities, which it considers to be tense residential market areas. The allegations are based on the fact that the resolution of the Territory Department does not meet the requirements established by the Right to Housing law, which is what empowered the autonomous communities to cap rents.
Presenting allegations is the first step required by law to be able to file a contentious appeal against the resolution of the Generalitat, in which even the precautionary suspension of its application could be requested.
Carles Sala, spokesman for the legal area of the API collective, pointed out that the allegations are presented within the public information process provided for by law, and the administration must respond to them before publishing its resolution. The new minister, Ester Capella, has stated that she wishes to approve the norm before August 17. In any case, Sala recalled, the Catalan resolution will not enter into force until it is published by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, now in office. The law itself provides that the Ministry verifies that in the request for autonomy the zones comply with the requirements established by law. However, Sala explained, the sector could already go to court as soon as the Generalitat approves its resolution, if it is not modified to comply with the law.
The recurrent associations are the Association, the College and the Council of Real Estate Agents (API) of Catalonia; the school and council of Estate Administrators, the Association of Developers (APCE) and the Council of Chambers of Catalonia.
In the opinion of these professional associations, the Generalitat has not complied with the procedure provided for in the Housing Law to declare stressed areas. Thus, the Government has not presented a report justifying the measure for any of the 140 affected municipalities, as indicated in article 18.2 of the law. Nor has it presented a specific plan with the necessary measures to correct the imbalance between supply and demand in those localities (article 18.4 of the Law).
The Generalitat establishes in its resolution that the reference price index to be applied would be that of the Agència d'Habitatge de Catalunya, when the law specifically establishes that the rental price index being prepared by the Ministry of Transport must be used. The associations acknowledge that the ministry could standardize the Catalan index but in their opinion it fails to meet the requirements set forth in the law, which requires that the index include the characteristics and conditions of the dwelling and the building. "This only occurs if the upper and lower margins of the Catalan index are taken into account" they point out, and consider that "therefore, it would be illegal to use only the central value that responds exclusively to area and location".
Real estate developers also consider that the selection of indicators used by the Generalitat to base its resolution "is biased and does not correspond to the definition made by the housing law." Thus, the resolution calculates the average mortgage charge at 80% of the sale price (when the average mortgage in Catalonia is 64%) and uses the values for the year 2020, which do not include the increase in inflation and the relative rent containment for the last two years.
The associations acknowledge that there are "growing imbalances between housing supply and demand in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and in large cities", but consider that rent control does not solve the problem as it happened in 1964, under Francoism, and with the application of rent control in Catalonia in 2020.
In his opinion, the high rent is due to the fact that the administrations have hardly built social housing for more than a decade. Thus, from January 2014 to April 2023 in Catalonia, only 1,883 subsidized rental homes have been classified, of which the Generalitat (through Incasòl) has only started 30%.
According to the business associations, "the Constitution indicates that 'the public powers will promote the necessary conditions and establish the pertinent regulations so that all Spaniards can enjoy decent and adequate housing.' However, the reality is that the obligations of the welfare state have been transferred to private owners.
