The Partido Popular (PP) has announced it will take a motion to Congress next week calling for the repeal of Spain’s 2023 Housing Law, which it blames for pushing more than 120,000 homes out of the rental market.
The opposition party argues that measures introduced under the law — supported at the time by PSOE, Podemos, ERC and Bildu — have generated “legal uncertainty” that has discouraged landlords. Many, says the PP, have chosen instead to sell, withdraw their homes altogether, or switch to short-term and temporary lets.
The result, claims the party, has been soaring pressure on the remaining rental stock, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods, “where middle-income families are being driven out of city centres.”
The Catalan example
As evidence, the PP points to Catalonia, the first region to apply rent controls under the law. According to data from the property portal Idealista, rental prices there have risen by 8.7% in the last year. Nationally, one in three homes withdrawn from the long-term rental market has been in Catalonia.
In Barcelona, competition for rental housing is described as extreme: every flat advertised reportedly attracts 341 requests, compared to 77 before the law came into force.
Okupas and inquiokupas
The PP’s motion also highlights what it calls the growing problem of illegal squatting. Citing figures from the Instituto de Estudios Económicos, it estimates there are now around 100,000 occupied homes in Spain, with nearly a third of owners declining to file complaints because of judicial delays that can stretch to 18 months.
The party argues for tougher rules to ensure that illegal occupants can be evicted within 24 to 48 hours, and includes the related issue of “inquiocupación” (tenants who stop paying rent but stay put).
More measures
Beyond repeal of the 2023 Spanish Housing Law and tackling squatting, the PP’s proposal sets out two additional planks:
- Fiscal incentives to help young people access housing.
- A new figure of “Strategic Residential Project” designed to streamline urban planning, cut construction timelines from ten to four years, and reserve 50% of the resulting stock for affordable housing.
Whether the initiative gains traction in Congress remains to be seen, but it keeps the Housing Law firmly at the centre of Spain’s political debate.
