After days of protests against high rents and housing shortages, the Spanish government has passed an extensive package of measures. Es sieht unter anderem einen verlängerten Schutz vor Zwangsräumungen bei schutzbedürftigen Personen bis 2030, eine stärkere Regulierung von Zeitmietverträgen und der Vermietung von Zimmern, ein Verbot des Erwerbs von Wohnungen durch sogenannte Geierfonds bis 2028 sowie steuerliche Vergünstigungen und Anreize für Mieter und Vermieter, wie Gesundheitsministerin Mónica García Gómez mitteilte.
In addition, speculative investment funds should no longer be able to buy apartments. The rental of living space to tourists should be severely restricted. It is unclear whether Parliament will also approve the measures.
The decisions were “unimaginable” just a month ago, said García Gómez. She thanked the demonstrators who made the new measures possible through their protests. "It wouldn't have worked without you." Justice Minister Félix Bolaños wrote on X about a "bad day for speculators."
Draft laws could fail in parliament
The measures are part of two government bills that still need to be passed in parliament. The left-wing coalition does not have a majority here. Anfang des Jahres war ein anderer Gesetzesentwurf, der unter anderem einen Mietendeckel vorsah, am Widerstand der konservativen Opposition gescheitert.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez hopes that he can overcome the parliamentary hurdles in the face of the protests. He cannot rely on the support of the opposition conservative People's Party PP and the ultra-right party Vox.
The Socialists and their left-wing coalition partner Sumar also have different opinions on the measures. Die Sozialisten hatten sich vor wenigen Wochen im Parlament bei einer Abstimmung über einen Sumar-Gesetzesvorschlag enthalten, der Investmentfonds den Kauf von Wohnungen verbieten sollte. The Catalan regional party Junts, in turn, warned against criminalizing private apartment owners.
Protests against housing shortages and forced evictions
The latest protests were triggered by the forced eviction from the apartment of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid. Vergangene Woche war diese auf einer Trage aus ihrer Wohnung in Madrid geholt worden, nachdem ein Investor den Mietpreis nach Angaben des Mieterverbands um 275 Prozent auf 2650 Euro erhöht hatte. She had lived in the apartment for 70 years. Since the eviction, she has been treated in a hospital for exhaustion.
Abascal's lawyers have since announced that she can return to her apartment. Accordingly, an agreement was reached with the owners of the property. The rent will be “similar to what she has paid so far,” said her lawyer Beatriz Duro.
The pensioner's fate sparked nationwide protests. On Tuesday, the regional government threatened to evacuate the protest camp in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square. Additional camps have now been set up in Málaga and Seville. It is unlikely that the protests will subside given the government's package of measures. The Spanish tenants' association welcomed the agreement. But activist Valeria Racu announced that she would call for nationwide protests next weekend. "It's just getting started," she said.
According to surveys, drastically increased rents and a lack of housing have been the biggest problem in the country for some time now. According to the real estate portal Idealista, rents in Spain have almost doubled in ten years. The Spanish central bank estimates that there is a shortage of more than 700,000 homes across the country.
