The Government will include in the omnibus decree that it is finalizing an extension of the prohibition on evicting vulnerable families who do not have a housing alternative for another half year, until the end of June next year. The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, has informed the Platform for People Affected by Mortgage (PAH) that the measure will be contemplated in the end-of-year rule in which the VAT reduction on food, among others, will also be extended.
Rodríguez and the leadership of the ministry held their first official meeting of the legislature with representatives of the PAH this Friday. At the end of the meeting, sources from the platform have reported that, in addition to the extension of the ban on evictions, the Government has confirmed that during 2024 the limitation on rent increases will be maintained at 3%, a provision contemplated in the Housing Law. The suspension expires this December 31. In this way, when the owner and tenant have to negotiate the annual renewal of their contract and do not reach an agreement, the increase cannot exceed the aforementioned 3%.
The PAH, which highlights that it did not meet with the previous minister of the sector, Raquel Sánchez, speaks of a first contact in a climate of “understanding” with the new Housing Department. The situation of variable rate mortgages was also highlighted at the meeting. The platform has demanded measures to reduce the impact of the Euribor rise, highlighted Francisco Marote, its spokesperson.
The need to promote a public housing stock was also addressed at the meeting. The Government has committed to promoting 184,000 homes and the PAH demands, in this sense, a review of the investments made from European funds and the Budgets.
In parallel, the Ministry of Housing held this Friday the first meeting of the working group created to regulate seasonal and room rental contracts, as La Vanguardia reported. The Government’s objective is “to establish mechanisms to avoid evading compliance with the Urban Leases Law and to try to safeguard seasonal rentals that really are, such as those for students or temporary workers,” highlighted the Secretary of State. of Housing and Urban Agenda, David Lucas. “That is why the Working Group has to give itself enough time to make an effort of consensus and also of rigor to try to ensure that the supply of housing is not reduced,” he added.
Lucas himself participated in this first meeting; the general secretary of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture, Iñaqui Carnicero; as well as other representatives of the General State Administration: Ministry of Economy, Presidency, the General Secretariat of Economic Affairs of Moncloa and, as a novelty, the Ministry of Social Rights.
On the part of civil society, representatives of the Council of Associations of Property Administrators, General Council of the Associations of Real Estate Agents, unions Workers’ Commissions and General Union of Workers, Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, Union of Tenants and tenants and Confederation of Urban Property Chambers and Associations of Urban Property Owners.
The Ministry of Industry will regulate, for its part, the uncontrolled proliferation of tourist homes in another specific working group.
