Mark Stücklin
Catalonia is moving from controlling rents to controlling who can buy property — and for what purpose. Here’s what the new budget deal actually changes, and why it represents a fundamental shift in housing policy.
Catalonia has taken a decisive step towards limiting property investment across most of the region. As part of the 2026 budget agreement inked this week between the Socilast-led Govern (regional government) and the extreme-Left Comuns party, a new law will be approved before the end of June to restrict so-called “speculative” purchases in stressed housing markets. For the Spanish Left, all investment is “speculation”.
The Socialists need the Comuns’ votes to pass the budget. That arithmetic has effectively handed the hard left control over housing policy — and this reform is their flagship demand. Albiach and her 6 seats out of a total of 135 in the Catalan parlament, on the back of 5.8% of the vote in the 2024 elections, is trying to impose a radical change on the property market and property rights in Catalonia.
Rent controls already apply across roughly 90% of Catalonia. But this agreement represents something qualitatively different. Until now, the Government has regulated the price of housing. It is now preparing to regulate the legal right to acquire property, using the Law of Urbanism to enforce what it calls the “social function” of housing.
The shift is from rent control to purchase control.
1. From rent control to “purchase control”
Under the current regime, an investor can buy a property. The rent may be capped, but the asset still belongs to them.
The new agreement aims to go further. It will not formally ban transactions, but it will condition their validity on intended use.
In stressed zones — 271 municipalities covering around 90% of the Catalan population — you will only be permitted to buy a property if it is:
- Your habitual residence, or
- A permanent, price-capped residential rental
The Comuns leader Jéssica Albiach was explicit: “We cannot prohibit the purchase or sale, but we can condition what the property is used for.”
The phrasing is revealing. She would like to prohibit people from buying and selling property but can’t. Second best she wants to drive out investors and prohibit whatever use she disapproves of.
2. Total lockout for “large holders”
Large holders — defined as owners of five or more properties in stressed areas — face near-total exclusion from the acquisition market.
- No individual flats: They will be prohibited from buying individual apartments.
- Buildings only: They may only purchase entire buildings, and only if committed to long-term, price-capped rentals while respecting existing contracts.
Current law already imposes stricter rent caps on large holders. This agreement goes much further: it largely removes their ability to expand portfolios in stressed areas.
3. Restriction of the second residence
Today there is no legal limit on how many second homes a person can own.
Under the new framework:
- An individual may own only one second residence in Catalonia, and it must be in a different municipality from their primary home.
- Any additional properties — whether inherited or acquired — must be dedicated to regulated rental or ceded to close family members for habitual use.
- No holiday letting permitted: Any second residence would be prohibited from being rented out on a short-term, seasonal or holiday basis. The agreement points clearly in that direction, but it is not yet clear whether this restriction would apply only to second homes acquired after the new rules come into force, or whether it would be applied retroactively to all existing second homes — a distinction that would have major legal and practical implications.
This has far-reaching consequences. A family living in Barcelona with a holiday home on the Costa Brava would be forbidden from buying another holiday property in the Catalan Pyrenees — for example in La Cerdanya, a popular ski area. Many well-off Catalan families traditionally own homes in both locations. Under these rules, that would be illegal.
Meanwhile, a British resident in London with a ski chalet in Verbier and a gîte in Provence would face no obstacle buying a fourth home on the Costa Brava. Nor would a Madrid resident. The restriction applies territorially, not nationally.
4. Massive public pre-emption
The agreement also allocates up to €300m annually for the Government to purchase homes directly from the private market Blog post techniques.
This is not just regulation; it is active market intervention. The aim is to pre-empt private transactions and steadily shift housing stock from the private to the public rental pool.
5. Aggressive enforcement and penalties
Rent controls have often proved difficult to enforce. This agreement builds a far more intrusive enforcement structure:
- Inspection corps: 100 housing inspectors will be launched in early 2026, expanding to 150 by 2027, tasked with verifying through notarial declarations and residency registries that owners are complying with declared use.
- Heavy fines: Sanctions of up to €1.5m will apply for breaches of use conditions.
Ultimately, the Government is no longer just telling owners what they can charge. It is telling them what they may buy — and what they must do with it.
A legal and political minefield
The agreement raises more questions than it answers. How will use be monitored long term? What happens if family circumstances change? How will ownership structures be scrutinised? How will inherited properties be treated in practice? The practical implementation risks becoming a complex administrative exercise involving notaries, registries, municipal planning departments and inspectors, all policing the declared “purpose” of ownership.
This represents one of the most interventionist approaches to property rights seen in Western Europe ever, regulating not only price but purpose and quantity of ownership.
It is highly likely to face immediate legal challenge. Catalan housing laws have frequently been partially struck down by the Constitutional Court in recent years. There is a real possibility that this proposal will be diluted in parliament, blocked in court, or have key provisions annulled.
But that uncertainty is itself damaging. Investors do not wait for constitutional rulings. Prolonged legal battles and unclear rules could paralyse transactions and deter capital long before the courts settle the matter.
Even if large parts of the law are eventually struck down, the intervening period of regulatory confusion and political confrontation risks freezing investment and shrinking supply. And in property markets, uncertainty alone can be enough to drive activity elsewhere.
Under such conditions, investment capital is unlikely to view Catalonia as an attractive destination other than for primary residence purchases. If investors retreat, the rental market — already under pressure from price caps and regulatory constraints — could shrink further rather than expand.
Ultimately, measures of this kind risk making the region poorer, not richer; shrinking the housing stock rather than improving it; and deepening the very housing crisis they are meant to solve. Foreign buyers will still be able to purchase holiday homes in Catalonia, but they will not be allowed to rent them out when not using them — a key part of the financial equation for many second-home owners. By redefining property not as an asset that can be freely invested in, but as something tightly controlled and conditionally owned, Catalonia is setting itself on a path that could render it effectively uninvestable from a real estate perspective.
