“We will amend the Housing Act, we will eliminate areas of tension and interventionism and we will replace it with actions favoring an increase in the supply of housing.” This is one of the main recipes available to the Popular Party to solve the housing problem in Spain, which has become one of the main concerns of society. The declaration of stressed areas envisaged in the norm approved by Congress in the last legislature allows communities and municipalities to establish rental price limits, but none of the eleven autonomous governments of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party have used this instrument.
The PP plans to register a housing bill in the coming weeks, following its new strategy aimed at giving a so-called social turn to its policies. The party’s Deputy Secretary for Sustainable Development, Paloma Martín, held a press conference on Tuesday in which she presented some of the measures that this package will include. In addition to changing current state regulations, to eliminate these caps, the package plans to improve protections for landlords against “squatting and squatting” and increase the supply of rental housing through tax incentives for owners.
“The housing problem has become the main problem and the culprit is Pedro Sánchez, who has not been able to apply the land law, he has taken all possible steps in the wrong direction of an intervention in the market that reduces the offers and intervenes on prices. […] and he protected the squatters and the squatters,” diagnosed the leader of the PP.
The general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, already announced on Tuesday the broad outlines of these new proposals that her party is preparing: lower taxes, land liberalization and “elimination of bureaucracy” to build up to 200,000 housing units per year. Today, Martín gave more details and included two new elements. The aforementioned removal of rent ceilings and the special protection of landlords against squatting thanks to a law that the PP approved in the Senate and whose processing is pending in Congress. The PP deputy accused the president of the Lower House, Francina Armengol, of having put this proposal “in the drawers in an undemocratic manner”.
Ending “interventionism”
The PP had previously criticized the rental price cap provided for by the Law for the Right to Housing, which was first approved in the government by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos and which was finally approved by Congress in May from last year. But this Wednesday, he promised to include in his new proposal a reversal of this measure which they describe as “interventionist” and to which they attribute a reduction in real estate supply of 15%. The PP also attributes the 13% price increase last year to the application of this law.
But the truth is that, although the approved law has a state character, the competences in housing come from the autonomous communities and municipalities; The text allows regional and local governments to implement measures such as rent capping to try to contain prices. Barely a month after the entry into force of the law, the PP has taken the lead in the majority of these governments – it has eleven autonomy in its power – and in none of them the limits permitted by the regulations are applied.
The only government that enforces the law is Catalonia. The Generalitat has declared stress zones in 271 municipalities, including Barcelona and the main metropolitan cities, although there is still no official data on price variation in recent months.
Increase supply
The PP maintains that one of the big problems is the decline in the supply of rental housing and that is why it has promised aid to owners to reverse this so-called trend. Among these incentives, the PP offers “protection” to owners with its anti-occupation law but also with “tax” incentives to apartment owners. “We will financially help anyone who wants to rent their property,” he said.
Among these tax aids, Gamarra announced yesterday that they would include “exemption from gift tax” within families “of all amounts intended for the acquisition of housing”. This Wednesday, Martín gave more details on this point. This will be a 100% bonus on gift tax “to members of the closest family”. “Normally, it will be up to children and young people to buy housing or become independent by renting housing. And we understand that very often, it is not appropriate to tax this donation,” he defended.
The new proposal will also include a change to rental requirements. “The rent is inaccessible because salaries of €2,000 are requested as guarantee. This arises from the Housing Law, which set the limit of income vulnerability at €800 per month, three times the IPREM, that is, it includes the majority of young Spaniards,” explains Martin. “We propose that the requirement be reduced from €1,800 of income to €1,080, from three times the IPREM to 1.5 times the IPREM,” he adds.
Although the PP highlights supply problems, tenant unions have pointed out, since the law came into force, another problem, that of seasonal rentals, a subterfuge that, they denounce, owners use to circumvent the price control that it imposes and which is the norm. they had already warned at the time that it could become a real hole. According to data collected by this newspaper, nearly one in three apartments for rent is currently under this modality. Precisely, the PP voted a few weeks ago against the submission of a law to Congress to resolve this point.
Protect owners
“What happened? “Many owners no longer rent their homes for fear of insecurity caused by squatting,” explains Martín in response to the alleged problem of the supply of rental housing. “In Spain, there is has 80,000 occupied homes and this is not a small number, even if the government wants to minimize it. This amounts to a complete occupation of cities like Toledo, Ceuta, Cáceres or Guadalajara,” denounced the PP deputy.
To this problem, they add a similar one, that of tenants who, they report, stop paying their monthly rent. “Every year there are 25,000 squatters in Spain,” he said without citing any sources. According to Funcas, the housing problem in Spain is due to speculation.
The PP therefore wishes to include in its law measures intended to protect people in situations of “vulnerability”. “They will benefit from stable protection in the Code of Civil Procedure, with the intervention of regional and local administrations in matters of housing and social assistance so that they present an alternative proposal for decent housing at social rent and measures immediate attention. The possible financial aid and subsidies that the person who has stopped paying these rents could receive in our plan,” he defended.
Build protected housing
Feijóo’s party criticizes the fact that Pedro Sánchez has not respected his commitments regarding the construction of social housing and proposes to activate the construction of “protected” housing. “Production of protected housing in Spain is at a minimum. 8,646 housing units in 2023, or 10% less than in 2022 and 18% less than in 202. The government has strangled the real estate market,” denounced the MP during this Wednesday’s press conference.
