Owners and tenants, against: keys and news of the new Housing Law approved by the Government today

The draft bill will see the light eight months after the agreement between the two government partners, PSOE and United We Can, but the delay has not served them to gain the support of other parties and social organizations. On the contrary, the generalized rejection suggests a arduous parliamentary processing that makes many doubt, even, that it ends in the approval of the standard.

One of the harshest criticisms of the draft of the State Housing Law comes from Tenant Union and the rest of social organizations -more than 120- that make up the platform Housing Law Initiative. “We can only express our deep indignation at its very short scope and its evident lack of ambition to solve the dramatic housing emergency that we are suffering in the Spanish state,” they said yesterday in a statement.

Among other things, they consider that the measures proposed are “highly insufficient” because they leave their effectiveness in the hands of the political will of the CCAA, and they assure that “the star measure of the Government” (in reference to the regulation of rents) “born starry” because “it leaves out the majority of tenants by leaving its application at the discretion of the autonomous governments instead of setting objective conditions.”

stressed areas

In this sense, the text of the preliminary draft to which you have had access THE WORLD collects that “the competent administrations in housing matters may declare, in accordance with their regulatory regulations, stressed residential market areas “ and advances some keys of said stressed areas. For example, the statement of stressed area will be limited to a period of three years, extendable annually “provided that the circumstances that motivated such declaration subsist”.

The Autonomous Communities and town councils must justify in a report the reasons for carrying out a declaration of this type and for this they may resort, among other things, to the maps of residential use values ??that the General Directorate of the Land Registry will prepare for changes in the reference values ??of real estate.

Among the conditions that the future law will guide as a stressed market area, it is established that the cost of the mortgage or rent (plus supply costs) exceed 30% of the median income of households in the area. It will also be weighted that the purchase or rental price has experienced a rise of at least the top 5% growth percentage of the CPI in each region in the last five years.

Big forks

Another controversial point of the future law has to do with the figure of the big forks, which for the first time are officially defined as the “natural or legal person who is owner of more than 10 urban properties for residential use or a constructed area of ??more than 1,500 square meters for residential use, excluding garages and storage rooms “.

Nevertheless, this definition is somewhat blurred since it is subject to the characteristics of a zone that is declared stressed. “In the memorandum that accompanies the proposed declaration of a stressed residential market area, the criteria for the consideration of a large homeowner will be defined based on its potential influence, due to the volume of properties for residential use owned in the market. for the rental of said area which, based on the definition of a large holder included in the law, may incorporate additional criteria according to the reality and characteristics of each area “.

Large landowners feel that the government is targeting them because the most controversial measures, such as rent limits, directly point to them as causing the price tension that occurs in the market. Large investment funds and representative associations of the largest holders have denounced in recent months the “interventionism” of the Executive and have warned that far from solving the problem, they aggravate it.

“These regulations threaten the freedom of business within the market, in addition to being detrimental to both private and professional investment by reducing legal security. In short, it can be said with relative security that this situation could scare away potential investors, in addition to making endanger the permanence of the existing ones “, he assures Carlos Grande, firm partner Abencys.

price index

In the absence of reference indices for lease prices, the standard proposes the creation of a public record of rental contracts “It must be linked to the current autonomous registers of bonds of the CCAA with the aim of increasing the information available for the development of the system of reference indexes of rental prices.”

Affordable incentivized housing

Another of the most striking novelties of the preliminary draft has to do with the definition of a new concept, “incentivized affordable housing”, something that already exists in practice but that for the first time is raised to a legal concept. “It shall be considered as such that privately owned dwelling, including third sector entities, to whose owner the competent Administration grants benefits of an urban, fiscal or any other type, in exchange for allocating them to habitual residence on a rental or rental basis. any other formula of temporary tenure, of people whose income level does not allow them to access a house at market price “.

Bonuses

On the other hand, the so-called small owners can benefit from tax incentives applicable in the Tax on Property. Personal Income (IRPF) up to 90% if they lower the price of their rental homes. This maximum bonus will be activated if the owner decides to lower his tenant’s rent by 5% with respect to the previous contract.

The following scale proposes a 70% discount if you rent for the first time a home in reference indices of stressed areas and do so to a person between 18 and 35 years old. Another option to get that bonus is to use the house for social rent at a lower price than public programs for people in vulnerability.

Finally, 60% is ruled for the cases of frozen prices but that have undertaken rehabilitation works and 50% for the rest of the cases.

Social housing fund

In terms of public-private collaboration, the creation of a social housing fund destined to strengthen the public park. The law, in its explanatory memorandum, refers to the fact that the 290,000 social housing stock barely reaches 1.6% of the 18.6 million homes in the country, while in France, Germany, the United Kingdom or Denmark it reaches the fifteen%.

Precisely to increase it, a reserve of 30% of the homes of the new promotions to protected housing is set, for which compensation mechanisms will be arbitrated from the administrations to said developers.

However, exceptionally, a lower reservation may be allowed or exempted for certain municipalities or actions, as long as the management instrument guarantees full compliance with the reservation within its territorial scope of application and a distribution of its location respectful of the principle of social cohesion “.

Cow home tax

In order to increase the supply of housing in stressed areas, the law empowers municipalities to deploy a IBI surcharge for vacant housing which can reach up to 150%.

The minimum increase for unoccupied flats will be 50% when, without just cause, the dwelling has been vacant for more than two years and belongs to an owner who has four or more properties for residential use; 100% when it is three years (which can be modulated according to the period of time of unemployment). Finally, there is the option of raising it by an additional 50% in the case of properties whose owners have two or more floors in the same municipal area.

Protection against evictions is also established for people in vulnerable situations, through the modification of the Civil Procedure Law.

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