Government vows to sanction housing law violations in 2025

The ongoing housing crisis in Catalonia has reached boiling point for tenants, who recently announced a rent strike after threatening the idea. 

There is currently rent cap regulation in force in most of Catalonia, limiting rent prices in accordance with a national index that is determined based on various factors of the building, its facilities, and its location.

However, despite the regulation being in force, there is currently no mechanism that sanctions landlords who do not comply with the housing law regulations, a long-standing demand from housing activists.

In addition, activists point to problems in housing caused by the fraudulent use of short-term lets to avoid the rent caps.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Catalan president Salvador Illa said the government plans to approve a sanction mechanism for landlords who violate the housing law regulations. 

In addition, the Socialist leader said that this law would be created separately from the budget law in 2025.

Last week, presidency minister Albert Dalmau stated that this would be the best way to enact the sanctioning mechanism. 

Illa pledged to lawmakers to approve it "as soon as possible" and assured that in 2025 "Catalonia will be the first autonomous community to have a sanctioning regime" for housing law violations.

"We will send a clear message to speculators: the law is for compliance and homes are for living," he said.

The leader of the Comuns in parliament, Jéssica Albiach, questioned the Catalan leader about the mechanism and asked last week that it not be linked with the budget law as "the negotiations are not going as fast as they should, and the needs of the people cannot wait."

Albiach considered Illa's commitment "good and necessary news" but regretted that 2025 "is very late" and insisted that they would like it to be in place by January.

Albiach also pushed to work on the sanctioning mechanism together with the government so that "there is not a single loophole."