This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
Mark Stücklin
Having damaged the long-term rental market with counter-productive regulations, the Spanish government has now set its sights on the mid-term market that many owners have turned to to escape hostile regulations.
Last year the government introduced a new Housing Law sponsored by the far Left to address the Spanish housing crisis with lofty intentions that disguised a policy of demonising owners, landlords, and house builders.
One of the consequences of this law was an exodus of owners from the long-term rental market, with many of them switching to the mid-term rental market (less than 12 months) to avoid ruinous costs and restrictions. The government has now set up a working group to study ways to clamp down on the mid-term market and cut off that avenue of escape.
At least this time the government in the form of the Housing Ministry has been sensible enough to include industry insiders in the working group before drafting regulations. Last year’s Housing Law was drafted by politicians, bureaucrats and housing activists without any industry consultation. In other words, without asking anyone who knew about the business.
Miguel Ángel Gómez Huecas, President of the Fadei trade organisation, has welcomed the creation of this working group saying he hopes that the government will be able to “recognise past errors, learn from them and work together with experts from the real estate sector, who are its companies and professionals.”
Unlike long-term rentals, which are now heavily regulated in favour of tenants at the expense of landlords with measures like rent controls and eviction brakes, mid-term rentals are less regulated in Spain, so owners have switched to them in droves, significantly reducing the supply of long-term rentals on the market in cities like Las Palmas (-42pc), Bilbao (-32pc), Madrid (-26pc). That was all the government’s doing.
The government’s answer to the harm it has caused the long-term rental market with counterproductive regulations is likely to be more counter-productive regulations to restrict the mid-term market too.
