Almost eight months after its approval, the state Right to Housing law has still not deployed one of its most notable and at the same time most controversial contents, the setting of maximum rental incomes in the places where the residential market is most out of control. . But this is about to change since the ministry of the sector plans to publish in February both the report with the stressed areas, which in Catalonia are 140 municipalities, as established last August by the Generalitat, as well as the reference price index.
Catalonia is the only autonomous community that has requested, in accordance with what is established by law, to apply the containment of rental income. She has insisted on this and upon noticing that she was spending time without being able to do it, she accused the responsible ministry, then directed by Raquel Sánchez, of the “unjustified delay” that was accumulating due to not having done its job. Things, however, seem to have changed after Isabel Rodríguez assumed the Housing and Urban Agenda portfolio. This Thursday, the minister agreed with Minister Ester Capella to publish in February the two aforementioned requirements that were pending so that the norm can be fully deployed.
This last trip by Capella to Madrid has been fruitful. A day after agreeing with the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, to also establish a political commission in February to channel the transfer of Rodalies, the Minister of Territory has repeated the operation with the head of Housing. In the coming weeks, the technical work between the two administrations will be completed to determine “the index system to apply” to rental housing prices, she explained shortly after the end of the meeting. Thus, she added, “in February the ministry will publish the report and the declaration of stressed areas of 140 municipalities that we sent in the summer of 2023 and the indices to apply.” All of this, he assessed, “is very good news for us, for the Government, for the Department of Territory and also for the citizens” which is why he did not hesitate to speak of a “great agreement” since it has “unraveled what that was stranded and the application of income containment in Catalonia becomes effective.”
Rodríguez has also seemed satisfied. “Today, housing is a transversal problem, for majorities, and both governments aspire to meet this demand,” the minister highlighted in a press release, in which it was confirmed that “the rental reference price index is planned to be published throughout the month of February.”
The construction of the index is a key issue. Catalonia set its own within the framework of the Housing law of September 2020, which was declared partially unconstitutional in March 2022. Since the approval of the state law, the Government has defended setting a homogeneous one for all of Spain, something that It will not be exactly like that, according to Territori sources. In the 140 municipalities that the Generalitat considers stressed areas, 6.2 million people reside, practically 80% of the Catalan population.
The implementation of this regulation to contain rental prices has been strongly criticized by the real estate sector, which believes that it will further reduce supply and end up putting even more upward pressure on rents. For the Llogateres Union, which defends the limitation, this “arrives very late,” as lamented by its spokesperson, Carme Arcarazo, who has avoided celebrating anything until seeing “the details and the fine print.”
