David Lucas, Secretary of State for Housing, warned on Thursday that prior EU regulation was needed to legally protect the ban on speculative buying of apartments. In an interview with 3CatInfo, Lucas assured that a rule emanating from the Generalitat or the Government would not be enough to avoid a direct collision with community rights and treaties, which is why he defended the necessity of the existence of this community regulation.
The government of Salvador Illa created a commission with the municipalities to study formulas that could put an end to this veto. In fact, the Barcelona City Council Commons group conditioned the budget vote, which was unsuccessful, on the ban on speculative purchases. Janet Sanz, leader of this municipal group, said she had a legal report, commissioned by the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB), which supported the ban. Lucas, however, warned that they cannot establish all the measures they would like to implement. “The Spanish state has signed treaties with the EU and we must safeguard the freedom of movement of people and capital,” he said.
Lucas added that it is “essential” that the European Commission can act on this issue. The government is studying measures taken by other countries and Lucas raised the case of the Netherlands, which could not impose a veto, but was able to sanction anyone who rents an apartment before four years have passed since the acquisition. However, before applying a standard like that of this country, the government prefers to wait, for reasons of legal certainty, until there is European regulation.
On the other hand, the government plans to invest 76 million euros per year to help landlords who wish to rent apartments to young people and vulnerable people in order to encourage rental to those who need it. This was one of the demands that Junts per Catalunya addressed to the Executive.
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