The Ministry of Housing published this Tuesday the new rental reference index, a procedure provided for in the state Housing law and which represents another mechanism to try to reduce prices in the so-called stressed market areas. These are the answers to the doubts surrounding the dissemination of the model.
It is an index available on the website of the Ministry of Housing in which you can consult the range of rental price values ??in the residential market based on the location, surface area and other characteristics of homes that are more than five years old, and whose constructed area is not less than 30 square meters nor more than 150 square meters.
It serves as a reference to know rental prices in census sections throughout the country, which cover between 500 and 2,000 inhabitants. The only exception is the Basque Country and Navara, without data due to their own tax system. The index, however, is initially published with a two-year lag, since it is referenced in housing tax data for 2022. When the 2023 fiscal year closes, it will be updated.
The index will be mandatory only for new contracts of large homeowners and for new agreements that are incorporated into the market as long as the home has not been rented in the last five years. And what is considered a large homeowner? One who owns 10 or more properties. However, the autonomous community can reduce this consideration to natural or legal persons with 5 properties.
Small landlords will not have to comply with the price index reflected in the rental index. These landlords and tenants will have to reference their rents in the stressed areas to the prices of the previous contract.
Only in the stressed areas of the communities that have requested the Government to declare them. At this moment only Catalonia has done so. The objective of the Generalitat is to create a single tensioned area in 140 municipalities, including Barcelona.
The state rental price reference system was published today, although a period of 10 business days for public consultation will open. From then on, it will come into force in the stressed areas and the autonomous communities that wish to do so will be able to apply it. Catalonia, therefore, will be able to do so around March 13.
The system offers a range of rental price values ??for homes throughout the country. They serve as a reference, as a guideline, for setting the rent in new housing lease contracts. The upper range will mark the limit of the rent at which owners obliged to comply with this limit in stressed areas can offer the home.
The Ministry of Housing’s mapping offers information on housing prices taking into account their location and size. More precise data has been incorporated on the constructed area, state of conservation, elevator, parking, year of construction, whether the home is furnished, height of the building, energy certification, community areas, swimming pool, counseling, special courts… Thus, a range depending on the characteristics of the homes. The best homes can be rented in the upper part of that range and the more modest ones in the lower range. The Government has opted for this scale so that a negotiation can be established between tenant and owner and also to prevent the poorest quality homes from being placed in the medium or high range, as explained by the Secretary of State for Housing, David Lucas.
A home in Barcelona located on Valencia Street is currently being offered on real estate portals at 1,600 euros per month. The maximum range of the state index lowers that lease to 984 euros. Another home on Madrazo Street in Barcelona is currently offered at 1,172 euros per month and, however, the maximum range of the index lowers it to 847 euros. Finally, a residential property on Sant Crist street is offered at 1,827 euros per month and the index places it at 951 euros. These are discounts of more than 40% on current prices, a difference that in Madrid, in certain homes, reaches 60%.
The rental index is based on data from the Tax Agency, the General Directorate of the Cadastre, the National Institute of Statistics, the Bank of Spain, the College of Registrars and the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of the Presidency.
The Generalitat does not agree with how the state index has been configured and demands to incorporate its own references because, in its view, the resulting prices are too high. But the Ministry of Housing is going to impose its state reference system and will not allow new contributions. The Minister of Territori, Ester Capella, warned this Monday after meeting with Minister Isabel Rodríguez that with this configuration rental prices will not decrease.
