Barcelona regulate rental price
The plenary session of Barcelona’s city council approved a declaration of a stressed market zone, which allows the application of all instruments of Catalonia’s rent control law for a minimum of five years.
From the moment of this declaration, the reference price when signing a new rental contract in the Catalan capital will be the lower of two amounts: the price of the previous contract or 95% of the price established by the Generalitat’s reference price index.
In addition to the declaration itself, all complaints filed during the public consultation period were rejected.
Housing councilor Lucia Martin explained that only appeals from the Association of Developers and Builders of Catalonia, the Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, and the Association of Rental Property Owners were rejected, but not from small property owners.
According to Martin, these are organizations that unite “privileged minorities,” large companies and developers who seek to “perpetuate a business model incompatible with guaranteeing the right to housing for the majority,” and therefore try to “prevent further application of the rent containment law.”
The councilor stated that thanks to this regulation, the rental housing supply has increased and “prices are beginning to stabilize.”
During the debates, the entire opposition unanimously criticized municipal housing policy — both those who voted for the declaration and those who voted against it.
ERC deputy Eva Baro criticized the fact that the stressed market zone declaration had to be adopted at an extraordinary plenary session, since only six days remained before the legal deadline expired, although there were months for its approval.
“If it were up to you, rent regulation in Barcelona would not become a reality,” she reproached the municipal government.
In their speeches, the minority factions that voted against the declaration insisted on the harmful consequences of rent regulation and reminded that the Catalonian price containment law, on which the declaration is based, has been appealed to the Constitutional Court.