Spain housing measures: parliament passes eviction and rent decree a day after general strike
The second decree, on automatic lease renewals, was rejected again by lawmakers.
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Spain’s interim lower house of parliament on Thursday ratified housing measures to limit evictions and real estate speculation, a day after a general strike, The Associated Press reported. The Spain housing measures passed by a single vote and may not last beyond the national election on 29 November.
Spain housing measures: what parliament approved
The government had tried to push the measures through in October after public anger over soaring rents. That followed the televised eviction, and later the death, of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid, AP said. Conservative parties joined to reject the package then, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called an early election days later.
Ministers split the package into two decrees on the second attempt. The first passed on Thursday and the second was rejected again, according to AP. Al Jazeera said Sanchez had brought back two decrees that were almost identical to the rejected ones.
Key numbers
- 35 to 34: the vote by which the first decree passed, per AP.
- 10 per cent: the new tax on apartments rented to tourists, according to AP.
- 4 million: the number of workers who joined the 11 November strike, unions said, as reported by Time.
- 29 November: the date of the national election, per Time.
What the first decree does
The decree extends eviction protections for tenants whom social services judge to be in a precarious financial or social position, as long as regional authorities cannot offer them another home. It stops rent increases for rents that already exceed the reference price in the government’s neighbourhood price index. It adds a tax incentive for leasing and government-backed loans for down payments on homes for residential use, AP reported.
The second decree, which would have made residential leases automatically renewable by tenants, failed.
Spain general strike and the road to the vote
Millions of workers staged Spain’s first general strike in 14 years on Wednesday, Time reported. Unions, tenants’ associations and other groups organised it, and hundreds of thousands marched in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. Time said the Sanchez government declared its support for the strike, an unusual move.
What the Popular Party has said
The conservative Popular Party has said it will repeal the housing measures if it takes power, and polls suggest that is a real possibility, AP said. The party and other conservative groups argued the laws would hurt the housing market and proposed a building programme instead, according to Al Jazeera.
What the housing minister said
“Yesterday, the right to housing won on the street and in workplaces, and I hope it will win again at the ballot box,” interim Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez told lawmakers, AP reported.
What happens next
Voters decide on 29 November, and the Spain housing measures will stand or fall with the result. If the opposition wins power, it has said it will repeal them.
Housing costs are the defining issue of Spain's 29 November election, and a one-vote majority means the new rules depend on the result. A Popular Party government has said it would repeal them, so tenants and landlords face an uncertain few months.