The Andalusian housing law will come into force on January 24

The Andalusian Housing Law reinforces the policies initiated by the Andalusian Government since 2019 and will create the best conditions to stimulate the supply of protected housing for sale and rent. The law creates the figure of priority areasareas where greater difficulties in accessing housing are detected and in which the administration’s resources will be concentrated in the form of rental assistance, purchasing assistance or incentives for the construction of new housing or rehabilitation.

Likewise, it is committed to public-private collaboration in its different modalities (concessions, subsidies), to unite efforts with the objective of expanding the residential stock at an affordable price. In this sense, an Andalusian commission for public-private collaboration will be created to find new formulas that will add to the initiatives already launched such as the system of exchange of land for housing or the development and urbanization of land.

It will also seek to balance the supply of housing for sale and rent and the different uses of housing, defending habitual and permanent residential use. Likewise, the law will optimize the management of the residential stock, through the creation of a single inventory of social housing whether from the Junta de Andalucía or from town halls.

The law places emphasis on the rehabilitation of housing, with initiatives that will allow the reconstruction of neighborhoods and measures aimed at eliminating unsanitary housing according to criteria and principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability. Likewise, it improves the quality and energy and water efficiency of properties, with the constitution of a Technical Commission for Housing Quality in Andalusiawhich encourages, for example, industrialization in housing construction.

There is also a section that guarantees the proper use of the residential park, avoiding illegal occupation and overoccupancy, as well as the protection of the most vulnerable. With this in mind, the creation of a Coordination Commission on evictions and the fight against illegal occupation is envisaged. The regulation establishes, within the framework of its powers, mechanisms for advice and information on evictions and occupation.

The standard integrates several of the urgent measures of the decree-law already in force, with the exception of those of a temporary nature (five years) such as the possibility of increasing the density and constructability of plots if one undertakes to protect them. A decree-law to which approximately 80 Andalusian municipalities which represent more than half of the Andalusian population and are located in areas where greater demand for housing is detected.

Premiere in Spain

Andalusia thus becomes the first autonomous community to approve a complete and renewed law in accordance with national regulations in force for two and a half years. This law aims to correct the effects of the national law on housing, which resulted in an increase in prices, a drop in supply, legal uncertainty for the owner or an increase in the occupancy rate.

The Andalusian Housing Law contributes, finally, to administrative simplification and to resolving the existing regulatory dispersion, since it repeals four laws: the Law on Protected Housing in Andalusia of 2005; the Right to Housing Act of 2010; the law on the social function of housing of 2013; and the Trial and Recantation Act of 2018.