The decision of the Generalitat de Catalunya to reduce from 10 to 5 urban properties in property to be considered a large holder, which will increase the field on which a potential price control applies to rent with the Housing Law, will cause a fall in the offer and will “make access” to the market impossible, according to a statement published jointly by the employers’ association Foment del Treball and the Association of Building Promoters and Constructors of Catalonia (APCE). As an alternative, they ask for a public-private collaboration to build housing and incentives to bring them to market.
The Territory Department announced the change last Wednesday. For the associations, the modification “will further aggravate access to the housing market.” The main effect, they maintain, will go in the opposite direction to what was expected, since leased apartments will be withdrawn to sell them, when what is needed “is to increase the offer in the rental market of all kinds.”
The employers’ association chaired by Josep Sánchez Llibre and the APCE propose formulas “that are really effective” as a way out to promote the growth of the subsidized housing stock, such as a public-private collaboration to generate “affordable and social” housing and tax incentives for owners to put empty flats on the market. It also requests “the improvement of the legal certainty of the owner in the event of non-payment or occupations”.
Respect for the legal framework is precisely one of the major sources of concern. “We are facing another political decision that will increase the legal uncertainty suffered by a market that is already stressed and does not need this type of paralyzing measures for private property,” he points out.
The category of large holder will set the rent with a price index if you have the home in one of the 140 municipalities that the Generalitat proposes as tense areas.
