Catalan government to put forward new housing law to regulate seasonal rentals

The Catalan government is to put forward a new housing law to regulate seasonal rentals, the territory minister has announced. 

Seasonal rentals are those lasting between one and eleven months, Ester Capella explained in parliament on Wednesday. 

As these rental contracts are for less than one year, they fall outside the annual rent cap that was introduced by the Spanish government in April and came into effect at the end of May.  

The proposed legislation "will prevent the application of the [Spanish] law from being sidestepped," Capella said. 

The Catalan executive will also push forward with new urban planning regulation for tourist apartments to "guarantee residential use of housing" in places where "use by tourists produces price tensions" and does not allow "the needs of the resident population to be satisfied." 

Protect progress 

It is necessary to protect the progress made by current legislation "without depending on future Spanish governments, some with little desire to apply the law," Capella said. 

Although the new Spanish law is  "not the one [she] would like" – Catalonia's rent cap law was struck down by Spain's Constitutional Court last year – the interior minister said the Catalan government had the obligation "to make the most of all opportunities to guarantee the right to housing."  

"The government of Catalonia will not allow the fraudulent use of seasonal rentals as a way of evading and circumventing the rent cap," Capella said. 

Sources in the territory department said they are currently working on the new legislation. 

Zero evictions 

"The right to speculate does not exist, the right to housing does," the minister said. 

The government's aim is to achieve "zero evictions in Catalonia" and because of this they have demanded that Spain introduce a "permanent" solution in the form of moratoriums.