The Permanent Deputation of the Parliament of Catalonia has refused this morning to validate the decree law that the Generalitat approved in April, the eve of the start of the electoral campaign, which regulated seasonal rentals, making it practically economically unviable in Catalonia except for attending events. recreational or cultural.
The Executive Council of the Generalitat approved the decree on April 24, with the Parliament already dissolved, and without negotiating it with the PSC or Junts per Catalunya, when for ERC the support of at least one of the two groups was essential to carry it out. . The three groups have 6 members in the Provincial Council, compared to a single representative from each of the other political groups. ERC managed to add to its votes those of the Commons and the CUP, insufficient, however, to validate the norm, by only achieving the abstention of the PSC in the face of the rejection of Junts, PP, Ciudadanos and Vox.
The acting councilor, Ester Capella, the main promoter of the rule, has criticized that overturning this decree “paves the way for speculation and fraud, and distances the Parliament from defending housing as a citizen’s right.” Mònica Sales, spokesperson for Junts, defended instead that “seasonal housing must be regulated, but not like this. And you have to listen to the sector,” she stressed.
The PSC already reproached ERC for its initiative, which it considered “more electoral than government”, in the words of its spokesperson, Lluïsa Moret, who reproached the Republicans for saying they were “proposals that have not been agreed upon or debated in parliament.” ”, and that the Generalitat had launched its decree despite the fact that the Ministry of Housing is also studying regulating it throughout the State and has already begun work with a group of experts. Junts per Catalunya has shown itself against addressing the housing problem only with regulation and its number three, Josep Rull, former Territorial Minister, described the decree as “monumental nonsense” and criticized that “coming out now unilaterally and taking the “Decision smacks of electoralism.”
The decree introduced a new article in the Catalan Housing Law of 2007, which establishes that leases signed for professional, work, study reasons, to receive medical assistance or in moments of transition to accessing a habitual residence will be considered ordinary leases. of housing, regardless of its duration, subject to the Urban Leases law and in the case of Catalonia, if they are located in stressed areas, to rent control.
The decree also regulates the maximum rent for room rentals, establishing that the rent for all elements of the home may not exceed the maximum price set by law for the rental of the entire home.
In Spain there is so far no regulation of room rentals, and seasonal rentals are excluded from the LAU: it is governed by the Civil Code and its conditions are left to the free agreement between the parties.
The Minister of Territori, Ester Capella, defended the need to regulate this type of short-term rental to close “the holes” in the Spanish housing law, which has skyrocketed the supply of seasonal rentals to avoid rent control.
