Spain overhauls housing rules as rent crisis sparks protests

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Key takeaways

Spain announced a housing rules overhaul to address soaring costs and nationwide protests.
Proposed measures include barring corporate speculation and extending rental contracts.
Home purchase prices rose 12.8% over the past year, far outpacing the EU average.

Spain’s government is overhauling housing rules to head off mounting unrest over soaring costs, after protests swept the country the past week and demonstrators set up camp in central Madrid.

The measures include barring companies from buying homes for speculative purposes, mandating the extension of current rental contracts the next two years, increasing taxes on tourist apartments and further limiting evictions of vulnerable people.

The package must now be approved on Friday by Parliament, where the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez lacks a majority.

Eviction sparks widespread outrage

The Sept. 23 eviction by police last week of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman with a disability, from the home where she had lived for 70 years triggered widespread outrage and demonstrations in Spain’s biggest cities.

“Patriotism also means preventing an 87-year-old woman, who has faithfully paid her rent for 70 years in the same home, in the same neighborhood, from ending up on the street after spending her entire life in that house,” Sánchez said Monday in Barcelona.

“I ask all parliamentary groups to make that final effort so we can get it through the Congress of Deputies,” he said, calling it “not an ideological issue, but a matter of humanity.”

Rent pressures fuel protests

Hundreds of young people have camped in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, the central square that in 2011 became the focal point of the 15-M movement, also known as the “indignados,” when demonstrators protested against the whole political system amid high joblessness and mortgage costs. Now, with employment at its strongest levels since 2008, their main concern is rent, as buying a home remains out of reach for many without financial help from their families.

Spain has grappled with a housing affordability crisis for years, driven by a shortage of supply, population growth and the expansion of major cities and coastal areas. In June, the Bank of Spain estimated the accumulated housing shortfall at 750,000 homes.

Prices, meanwhile, continue to climb. Home purchase prices rose 12.8% over the past year, compared with 5.1% in the European Union, according to Eurostat. Housing is the biggest concern for Spaniards, according to the country’s official pollster.

Tax measures target housing costs

The measures are aimed at preventing evictions like Abascal’s while containing price increases. On the fiscal side, the government will set a 10% VAT rate for tourist apartments and introduce tax breaks for people earning less than €33,000 ($37,460), a measure that will reach 1.6 million households, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said at a press conference.

“I regret that we had to witness a collective failure for the world, the country and political positions to shift,” she said.

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