Catalonia extends price containment to all rentals except vacation rentals

Capella says it "fills the gaps that state law had left"

BARCELONA, 24 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

This Wednesday, the Government approved a Decree Law that extends the containment of rental prices to all temporary rentals except those for leisure, vacation or recreational purposes.

It was announced this Wednesday by the Minister of Territories of the Generalitat, Ester Capella, at the press conference after the Executive Council, together with the spokesperson for the Government, Patrícia Plaja.

The new regulation prevents the prices of temporary rentals intended for work, professional, study, medical assistance or other time-limited situations from being raised and that cover permanent housing needs even if it is temporary.

Capella has explained that this Decree Law "fills the gaps that the state law had left" and regulates aspects that the Government regulation had not included.

He added that the desire is to "avoid roguery" in the rental market to avoid the application of the rent cap and taking advantage of legal loopholes.

The Decree Law specifies that rentals of residences are subject to the applicable regulations even if the contract is temporary in terms of deposits, determination of rent, price updates or impact of improvements in the home.

The new regulation aims to resolve points that the state housing law has left open and prevent an increase in the number of expired contracts that escape price containment by becoming seasonal rentals.

Capella has indicated that the objective is to "deploy with full effectiveness that income containment is applied in Catalonia to its full extent."

Furthermore, the Government has taken the opportunity to guarantee the increase in the public housing stock that could be affected by the lack of Budgets from the Generalitat this year.

The Government has also regulated the rental of housing by rooms, so that from now on the sum of rents agreed in all the contracts cannot exceed the maximum rent that would be applicable if the entire home were rented.

The new regulations will require that all rental contracts include the reason for the rental and if this is not done, it will be considered a permanent home, so the rent cap will have to be applied.

On the other hand, advertisements and rental contracts must inform about the reference price, the rent of the last contract and whether the owner is a large holder, and those already published will have five days to include this data.

In order to guarantee that the new obligations are applied, the Government has added several points to the sanctioning regime that was already being applied.

It will be considered a very serious offense - with penalties of 90,001 to 900,000 euros - if the rental price exceeds the reference rate by 30% or stating a false rental cause in the contract.

Renting for a price between 10% and 30% higher than the index, not stating the reason for the rental or passing on the costs of property management and formalization of the contract to the tenant will be serious offenses, with penalties of between 9,001 and 90,000 euros. .

Finally, it will be a minor offense - with a fine of between 3,000 and 9,000 euros - if the advertisements do not include the maximum price in the area, the amount of the last contract or the owner's status as a large holder, and rent for up to a 10% more than the maximum allowed.