The Parliament of Catalonia approved on Thursday the regulation for the first time of seasonal rentals, a formula adopted by thousands of owners in recent years to avoid applying the housing law. The bill approved by the Catalan Chamber provides that these leases are also subject to price increase ceilings, as are the rest of the rental contracts for habitual residence in most Catalan cities.
The regulation of seasonal rentals and room rentals has been included in a broader bill, with urgent measures in terms of housing and town planning. The part which concerns these monthly leases, agreed by the PSC, the ERC, the Comuns and the CUP, was approved by the vote of these four parliamentary groups.
Junts approved the entire text, but rejected the articles regarding vacation rentals. PP, Vox and Aliança voted against.
As soon as the law comes into force, both seasonal rentals and room rentals will be subject to the same price increase ceiling as other habitual residence rentals, as provided for in the Housing Act. Only temporary rental contracts which are intended for recreational, tourist or vacation uses will be excluded from this regulation.
In this way, Catalonia is ahead of the various administrations that are preparing their own laws and regulations to prevent the flight of conventional seasonal rentals, which, in cities like Barcelona, already represent between 20 and 30% of new contracts. For example, the Congress of Deputies, with a proposal initially drafted by the Tenants’ Union. Or the Barcelona City Hall, which has committed to the municipalities to put an end to these rents through a modification of the Metropolitan General Plan.
In its objective of pursuing seasonal rentals as a formula for increasing rent prices, the bill approved in Parliament subjects part of these monthly rents to the rules that affect habitual residence rentals. Therefore, any rental contract, regardless of its duration, is considered permanent accommodation. This concerns rentals for professional reasons, studies, medical problems or works. Only tourist or recreational reasons are excluded.
The regulations also require that temporary rental contracts document this short duration and provide a deposit with the Institut Català del Sòl (Incasòl). Furthermore, the text provides that in the event of extension of one of these temporary contracts, or signing of a new contract, it will automatically be considered as a habitual residence if the tenant does not prove the cause of this seasonality and that he has a permanent residence elsewhere.
In the case of room rental, also in an upward trend among landlords who sought to continue increasing rent prices, the bill establishes that these contracts must also comply with the regulations regarding the rental of residential housing. Therefore, the sum of the rents agreed for each room cannot exceed the limit established for this apartment in the tight market area.
Approved by the Council of Legal Guarantees – in which Junts and the PP participated – the bill includes a broad set of measures aimed at promoting housing construction and combating the price crisis. Among them, the expansion of the exercise of public housing purchase stands out, establishes permanent limits on the sale of protective apartments and creates a new basic license to facilitate the construction of new houses.
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