The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has forced the Generalitat to “correct” the memory and the resolution by which it declared stressed areas in 140 municipalities of Catalonia and to publish a new resolution that will allow rent control to be applied starting tomorrow, a Today the Government will publish in the BOE the new income index on which the limits will be based.
The Department of Territory published yesterday in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat (DOGC) the new resolution and the new report which, as a novelty, considers the 140 municipalities a single stressed area and clarifies that it will be a large holder, therefore obliged to apply the index, the owner of five properties for residential use in the entire area, without segmenting by municipalities.
The new report published by the Generalittat eliminates the exceptions that it had foreseen in the application of rent control to prevent it from discouraging the launch of new rental apartments on the market, a phenomenon that is already pressing: according to data published yesterday by the Chamber of the Urban Property of Barcelona, in the capital the rental contracts signed in 2023 fell to lows in a decade, while the supply of available apartments, according to the idealista portal, has fallen by 76% compared to what it reached in 2020.
Legal sources indicated that the State's lawyers have considered that an autonomous community does not have the power to propose exclusions, because they are not provided for in the Housing Law.
Thus, the rent cap will now apply to all homes that are rented in these areas, also to those of new construction or those coming from a major rehabilitation. Likewise, homes that previously had social rentals will have to maintain their previous rents, updating them only with the CPI, for example those that were contributed to the Social Rental Housing Fund of the Generalitat, those that had previously been protected housing but have lost the qualification, and also to those who had agreed on rents that were more than 25% lower than the market rents, as happens when they rent to relatives.
Real estate sources regretted that the Generalitat's resolution fails to comply with the provisions of the Housing Law itself, since it will come into force without giving a public information period. The Generalitat previously ruled out the allegations presented by the sector's employers against its resolution.
Sources from the Ministry of Housing explained that the rent control index has received a total of six allegations, but none have been accepted. With its approval, the ministry points out, “we comply with the mandate of the Housing Law and make progress in avoiding the price scale and speculative movements in the rental market.”
