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Lawmakers pass Spain’s key housing law ahead of elections

Spanish lawmakers on Thursday approved a housing bill aimed at capping soaring rents and addressing dire social housing shortages as the government seeks to bolster the right to affordable homes.

Published: 27 April 2023 16:55 CEST
Lawmakers pass Spain's key housing law ahead of elections
Spain's left-wing government wants to fast-track the bill into law before regional and local polls on May 28th. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

The proposal, which passed with 176 votes in favour to 167 against and one abstention in the 350-seat chamber, seeks to cap rent hikes, increase help in high-demand areas, boost protection for those facing eviction and sanction landlords for leaving properties empty.

It will now go before the Senate before returning to Congress for a final vote, likely in mid-May.

Flagged by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as the “first-ever housing law” since Spain’s return to democracy in 1975, the bill is part of a reform promised to Brussels in exchange for EU recovery funds.

“With this housing law… and the push we’re giving to social housing in the coming years, we’re going change the paradigm so what is today a luxury will become a basic resource for young people,” Sánchez said outside parliament.

Spain’s left-wing government wants to fast-track the bill into law before regional and local polls on May 28th.

The government says the legislation aims to meet the needs of those struggling to afford housing while limiting property speculation.

“Spain has a huge, very serious problem with housing,” Sanchez said last week, saying average rents had risen 45 percent between 2014 and 2021, making housing “unobtainable for many people, especially youngsters”.

Soaring rents have sparked bitter debate in a country traumatised by the collapse of its housing sector following the 2008 financial crisis, when thousands of families were evicted after being unable to pay their mortgages.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Sanchez unveiled plans to add 113,000 homes to Spain’s depleted social housing stock.

But the move was rubbished by the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) claiming it failed to address long-term housing problems.

“A fantastic opportunity for squatters,” the PP said, denouncing the bill as making the eviction process “harder and slower”, claiming squatting had “risen by 50 percent in recent years”.

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Rental caps risks

Under the proposal, rental rises will be decoupled from the consumer price index and permanently capped at 3 percent in 2024, with a new index due to be set by 2025.

It will allow regional authorities to designate as “stressed areas” neighbourhoods where particularly high prices are driving out tenants and cap rental prices.

The text also penalises landlords for leaving homes empty if they own more than 10 properties – or five in stressed areas.

It also obliges them to inform those facing eviction of the exact date and time they must leave and lengthens the grace period for vulnerable tenants.

But Spain’s Exceltur tourism association warned that capping rents in high-demand areas could backfire.

“It could end up further aggravating the problem, giving a strong incentive to transfer properties from the residential market to the tourist rentals where there are no ceilings,” it said.

Although the government has made affordable housing one of its priorities, Sanchez admitted more was needed to address the crisis in a country with one of the smallest percentages of social housing in the EU.

“We know this law is not enough, which is why we need to increase the supply of public housing from the shameful three percent of total housing stock to the 20 percent of the most advanced countries,” he said.

Experts agree more social housing is urgently needed.

READ MORE: How Spain plans to address its huge lack of social housing

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ROYAL FAMILY

Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

After a decade on the Spanish throne, King Felipe VI is steadily growing in popularity. If things were ever to turn sour, could the Spanish public and government actually oust the monarch and turn Spain into a republic?

Published: 17 June 2024 17:15 CEST
Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

King Felipe VI is set to celebrate a decade on the Spanish throne. He became king on June 19th 2014 following the abdication of his scandal-ridden father, former King Juan Carlos.

This meant that Felipe took over the crown needing to somewhat rehabilitate the public image of la Casa Real. According to polling data released to coincide with his decade as king, it seems he’s done a decent enough job of it so far. In fact, after 10 years on the throne his approval rating has grown.

READ ALSO: What do Spaniards think of their royal family?

Felipe obtained an average score of 6.6 among Spaniards polled, surpassing, for the first time, the 6.5 mark. This is according to a survey carried out by the IMOP Insights Institute for Vanitatis.

In fact, after a decade the majority of Spaniards approve of the King’s performance: 46.4 percent have a positive view of his work, compared to 20.9 percent who are critical or hold a negative view.

Older people generally have more favourable views of Felipe and the monarchy, whereas under 25s are the only group with a negative opinion of him.

In terms of regional breakdown, the most pro-Felipe part of the country was found to be Andalusia and the least, to the surprise of absolutely nobody in Spain, was Catalonia.

Many royal commentators in Spain argue that Felipe, along with his daughter, Princess of Asturias Leonor, have taken big steps to restoring the Spanish crown’s credibility.

That Felipe’s personal approval rating has grown over time is testament to that, and positive ratings, especially after a decade in the public eye, is something most politicians could only dream of.

That is to say, there doesn’t seem to be any danger of Spaniards turning on their king for now. But what if Spanish public opinion changed over time and suddenly Spain did want to become a republic?

Legally, constitutionally speaking, could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Spain’s Queen Letizia attend a ceremony for the Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias. Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP.

The steps to a republic

Even if Spaniards themselves wanted it, transitioning from a constitutional monarchy to a republic involves a lot of steps that make it highly unlikely, perhaps even impossible.

The change would require two-thirds support in both chambers of the Spanish Congress, something that is very unlikely in the current political climate. Such consensus across both houses is very, very rare.

But, theoretically speaking, to get rid of the king the Spanish legislature would first need to amend Article 1 of the título preliminar of the Spanish Constitution, which outlines the state structure and clearly says that: “the form of the Spanish state is a parliamentary monarchy”.

To do this, the government or Congress would have to call for a vote on constitutional reform in the Congress of Deputies and it would have to pass with a qualified majority, that is, with a majority of two thirds or more, which is equivalent to 234 or more deputies.

READ ALSO: How much do Spain’s king and royal family make?

It would then have to be ratified in the Senate with the same qualified majority. Of the 265 senators, 177 would have to be in favour.

But it doesn’t end there. If both chambers agree, Congress would be dissolved, a general election would have to be called, and the voting would have to be repeated among the new deputies.

However, there’s still one final hurdle: a general referendum. The people’s referendum is meant to function as a sort of fail-safe or quality control on the actions of the legislature, especially on such a huge constitutional question.

Javier Tajadura, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of the Basque Country, told Spanish website Newtral that “the referendum serves as a form of citizen control of what the Cortes want to carry out, and it must be carried out after the votes [in both houses] have been taken.”

If, after all the votes in Congress pass with suitable majorities, the referendum also results in a yes and it is undeniable that Spaniards want to change from monarchy to republic, Spain would become a republic.

Then the debate would shift to whether Spain would need an entirely new constitution, or it would need to make some (pretty huge) changes to the pre-existing constitution of 1978.

So, yes. Spain could, in theory, become a republic. Clearly, the Spanish system has a lot of checks and balances embedded within it that makes moving from a monarchy to a republic constitutionally complicated, politically unlikely, and, in realistic terms, very improbable to the point of being almost impossible.

As Miguel Ángel Cabellos, Professor of Constitutional law at the University of Girona, puts it: “Beyond the fact that it is a change of an essential and core element of the political system, which would also radically divide society, the truth is that from a legal point of view the difficulties are very notable, one could almost say insurmountable in practice.”

READ ALSO: The one thing to know about each of Spain’s ‘crazy’ kings and queens

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