The votes against from Together for Catalonia (Junts) and the abstention of the Catalan Socialists (PSC) have overturned the Catalan government's decree that had closed a loophole to bring short-term housing rental contracts into the same regime of rent caps and limits applying to other housing rental contracts. Consequently, the regulations that had been urgently promulgated by the acting territorial minister, Ester Capella of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), will cease to be in force immediately.
In this Thursday's vote in Parliament, before the standing committee which handles urgent business until the new chamber is constituted, the regulation brought in by decree in April to cover short-term housing contracts, as well as that on the rental of individual rooms, has been rejected, with Junts, Vox, the People's Party (PP) and Ciudadanos (Cs) voting against. ERC only achieved the support of the left-wing parties, the Comuns and the CUP. The Socialist group abstained.
Acting minister Capella stressed that without any regulation for these types of housing contracts "speculation is guaranteed." On the other hand, Alicia Romero (PSC) and Mònica Sales (Junts) criticised the Pere Aragonès government for passing the decree law in a hurry, days before the start of the Catalan election campaign, without working on the text with the rest of the parties. Romero added that the wording of the decree generated "legal uncertainty" and could discourage owners who might be considering renting out homes.
Mònica Sales, from Junts, spoke in favour of regulating short-term rentals, "but not doing it like this." She asserted that it was necessary to involve all actors in the sector. "This regulation undermines the entire seasonal rental model based on the premise that all contracts made are fraudulent," she said.
In a statement, ERC expressed its regret that the PSC and Junts had "aligned themselves with the right and the far right" to overthrow the regulations. The deputy spokesperson of the Republicans, Jordi Orobitg, declared that, with the abstention of the Socialists and the vote against of the independentists, these parties are "promoting public indignity, defending the interests of those who have always won in the housing sector and want to continue doing so."
Now-defeated housing decree attempted to remove a loophole in the law
In the emergency decree law published in on April 24th, the Catalan government regulated "the fraudulent use of short-term rentals" in Catalonia. Given the timing, the political opposition accused them of electoralism. That text had decreed that the regulations applying to typical, longer-term housing rentals would also apply to most short-term contracts - those usually defined by real estate agents as lasting between 32 days and 11 months. Under that new rule, contracts would have to explain the reason for their temporary nature and most would then have to comply with the new rent caps and rules on bonds and expenses contracts in the housing law which came into force earlier this year.
Thus, under the changes which have now been defeated, the economic activity of the rental occupant was to be key, rather than the duration of the contract. If the accommodation was sought for purposes of the renter's study, work or medical care, then, however long it was, it would become subject to the rent limitations for regular housing, in order to remove the current loophole whereby property owners rent out their accommodation on short-term contracts in order to avoid the current rent controls and charge higher rates. Seasonal rentals for holidays or tourism were to be left as an exception in the decree, for which higher rents could still be charged. All of these rules have now been wiped out by the parliamentary vote against the measure this Thursday.