Housing is a constitutional right that is threatened by the new Housing Law that the Government intends to approve in the next few days. This law represents a step backwards in the protection of tenants and a limitation of the supply of rental housing. These are some of the disadvantages that this regulation will cause:
- The law reduces the concept of large property holder from 10 to 5 properties. This implies that many landlords will be forced to lower the rental price in areas declared as stressed, which may discourage the placing of vacant homes on the market or cause them to be sold.
- The law establishes a system of reference price indexes to limit rents in stressed areas. However, these indices do not take into account the specific characteristics of each dwelling, such as its state of preservation, its equipment or its location. In addition, the declaration of a stressed area depends on arbitrary and non-transparent criteria on the part of the autonomous communities and municipalities.
- The law prevents the annual update of the rent according to the CPI and establishes a new index that may generate disproportionate increases in the rent. It also prohibits the agreement between the parties to establish conditions different from those provided by law, which limits the autonomy and contractual freedom of landlords and tenants.
- The law toughens the protection measures against evictions, extending the assumptions and deadlines for suspending evictions. While this measure may benefit the most vulnerable groups, it may also generate a perverse effect by increasing delinquency and the risk of non-payment for homeowners, especially for small owners who depend on rent for their livelihood.
- The law does not provide effective solutions to increase the supply of public and affordable housing. It is limited to establishing minimum land reserve percentages for subsidized housing and imposing IBI surcharges for vacant dwellings. These measures are insufficient to address the housing shortages and precariousness suffered by millions of people in our country.
In short, the new Housing Law is a regulation that does not respond to the real needs of the real estate sector or to the social demands for access to decent housing. On the contrary, it represents an unjustified interference in the rental market, which can have negative consequences for both landlords and tenants. For this reason, the legal and urban planning community is calling for a thorough and participatory review of this law to ensure a balance between the rights and duties of all parties involved. There are no simple solutions to complex problems, and this law, far from solving the problem, will aggravate the situation.
