The Regional Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, announced this Monday that she is beginning the process to declare 131 new Catalan municipalities as stressed residential market areas, where the rental limits already in force in another 140 municipalities would be applied. This would bring the list of stressed areas to 271 in total.
He made it public in the Urban Planning Commission of Aran, held in Vielha and Mijaran, which had also asked the Government to add the city to the list.
This expansion includes municipalities with more than 2,000 inhabitants, where it has been analyzed that either families dedicate more than 30% of their income to paying rent or mortgage (including basic expenses), or the price of housing has increased by the last 5 years three points above the CPI.
With this, practically 90% of the Catalan population would live in a tense area.
For now, a public information period is open that lasts 20 days, during which administrations, entities and individuals can present allegations to this proposal. Afterwards, the final report will be passed to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, which has the power to definitively approve the resolution.
In general, ongoing rentals will not be affected yet. The law applies specifically to contracts signed after the publication in the BOE of the final resolution, as follows:
Large holders (5 or more properties owned in stressed areas, or more than 10 in the entire Spanish territory) will see the price of the new rental limited to the lowest value between the price of the previous rental contract and the state price index.
The housing law aims to freeze rents, but offers the option of increasing the rental price of new contracts by up to 10%, provided that improvement works have been carried out on the home in the last two years or when signing a contract. habitual residence for 10 years.
The tenant can request an annual extension (up to a maximum of three years) at the end of the contract, which the landlord is obliged to accept. This will not prevent you from recovering the home out of necessity, if this had been expressly agreed in the contract.
This only affects contracts signed as of May 26, 2023 (date of entry into force of the law) and that they are properties located in an area declared stressed.
Thus, these contracts would have, if desired and requested by the tenant, a duration of up to 8 years, during which the landlord has the right to increase the rent annually based on the CPI.
Many owners, to avoid these measures, now offer their homes with temporary rental contracts, which last between 32 days and 11 months and are exempt from this law.
