PP’s victory leaves the Housing Act up in the air

The electoral upheaval that occurs after regional and municipal elections threatens the implementation of key measures of the new Law on housing just four days after coming into force. Autonomous communities hold the key by launching initiatives such as hat rental wave demarcation of large landowners, included in the norm recently approved by the coalition government, it can see the light, but the blue color that now colors the political map of Spain complicates its development.

The new law had to leave some of the most critical points in the hands of regional governments in order not to attack regional powers, since living place It is a faculty that depends on autonomous communities. They are the ones in charge of making decisions areas under stress that exist in their regions to be able to benefit from the many measures included in the law, such as restrictions on rent increases, the delimitation of large landlords and bonuses for personal income taxwhile the increase in IBI 150% depends in this case on the city councils, also now in their vast majority hands PP.

It was one of the main planks of the standard and one of the biggest points of friction between the PSOE, which was reluctant to approve it, and United We Can, which forced its inclusion in the new standard: rent caps. After months of wrangling over how to regulate rental prices, both government partners reached an agreement to limit stressed areas. To do this, the local government must draw up a “preparatory procedure” before requesting the declaration of a stressed area. In addition, they will have to define reports that will contain indicators and data on rental and sales prices and the amount of income of residents. And also a report that justifies the need to declare real estate map areas in color Reda map that will now, in the political arena, be colored blue.

Autonomous communities must also submit a specific plan that includes proposed measures to correct detected imbalances. And when collected, all this information will go to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, which will declare the area under stress if the requirements are met. So yes, price caps and other initiatives that depend on this definition will be put in place.

If all this bureaucracy has already threatened to delay the implementation of these important measures, the new political course of the country, commanded by the PP, which has clearly opposed this rule, will in practice freeze its entry into force. Thus, after the elections this Sunday, the PSOE, which ruled in nine communities, will remain in charge of only three: Asturias, Castile-La Mancha and the Canary Islands, while PP occupies six communities, some in stressed regions such as Valencia or the Balearic Islands, where no restriction is likely to be imposed on prices despite perceived problems.

In addition, the party he presides over Alberto Nunez Feijoo he also won in almost all the big cities and in about thirty provincial capitals. And the municipalities in turn have a number of delegated powers regarding land use planning and urban planning.

Alternatives to evictions

This PP triumph will also nullify the downgrading of the large owner concept to those who have five homes for residential use, instead of the current ten, as this measure only comes into force in areas declared under stress. And large landlords have more restrictive price controls than private landlords, although Transport has not yet finalized the benchmark index to be used for its caps.

In turn, Small landlords who lower their rental contract prices will not be able to use the new bonuses of up to 90% on income taxsince this is only operative in stressed areas and if the reduction is 5%.

In the same way, the new norm provided that the autonomous communities could force the large landlords carrying out the evictions to articulate their own alternative mediation and housing mechanisms.