The Government will “urgently” limit the duration of temporary rentals depending on their reason to avoid their habitual use
The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, announced this Wednesday that her department is working “urgently” on a decree for limit the maximum duration of temporary rentals depending on the reason to which they respond, which must be proven at the time of signing the rental contract. In this way, the Government intends to tackle the fraudulent use of this formula as a habitual residence, while at the same time advancing in the launch of a state platform that collects data on this type of short-term rentals, as well as tourist apartments and room rentals.
“Causality will determine the temporality and It will be necessary to be able to prove this causality at the time of signing the contract”the minister pointed out after meeting with the working group dedicated to this matter, recalling that temporary rentals – currently regulated by the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) – serve for those cases in which the tenant is looking for a place to live for a limited time outside their usual home.
The reasons for resorting to this type of lease may be, for example, moving from one city to another for work, studies or to receive medical treatment. While the details are not yet specified, the minister has given as an example the possibility that if it is a home To complete the academic year, the temporary rental contract may have a maximum duration of nine months.although for example it could exceed one year in the case of a researcher who is displaced to carry out his/her work.
“It is about guaranteeing and protecting seasonal rentals for what is expected, for temporary reasons,” Rodríguez stressed, adding that “It is necessary to establish all the mechanisms to prevent the LAU from being circumvented” and safeguard seasonal rentals”. Due to the lack of regulation – temporary rentals were excluded from the housing law – the use of this type of rental has been distorted in recent times, being used as a habitual residence in a fraudulent manner, as reported by the real estate sector, unions and even the Bank of Spain itself.
In this regard, the minister has acknowledged that this phenomenon is “putting pressure on the residential rental market” and causing price increases – as with tourist apartments. Since it is a form of temporary accommodation, The protection of the tenant is not the same as in a regular home and neither are the restrictions. In each case, the landlord and tenant agree on when the contract ends and what the fixed price is, without possible revisions and without applying, for example, the limits established by the Executive.
Rodríguez has explained that the way to demand that the cause of a temporary rental be accredited and, consequently, limit its duration will be through a royal decree that accommodates Spanish regulations to a regulation recently approved by the European Union on short-term rentals – which includes both temporary and tourist rentals, by room and floating vessels. The minister has stressed her intention to process this new regulation “with absolute speed”, which, she said, could be ready by the end of summer.
The text that the ministry is working on will specify how to prove causality and, at the same time, will support the implementation of a New state platform to register which homes are dedicated to this type of rental to control its use. Housing already announced at the end of May its commitment to launch before the end of 2025 This tool, required by Brussels, will group information on short-term rentals offered on online portals, and has asked for the collaboration of the autonomous communities and town councils to collect the data. Rodríguez has clarified that the idea is for each home to have “a single registration” that allows verification that it is used legally and thus a count to be kept to combat fraud.
Reluctance of the unions
The decree announced by the Government has not convinced the unions. After the meeting of the working group, the spokesman for the Tenants’ Union, Víctor Palomo, rejected the proposal as it did not address room-based renting or address their demand to limit temporary rentals to six months. “A regulation is not a legislative modification of the LAU“We understand that there will be many escape routes. It is a breach of tenants’ rights,” said Palomo, who recalled that the Tenants’ Union presented a bill in Congress last week to regulate temporary and room rentals.
The Secretary of Public Policies of CCOO, Carlos Bravo, has regretted that the Ministry of Housing has not presented a written proposal. “The verbal expressions that the Ministry has expressed today are of interest, but at the same time we have regretted that there has not been a text,” he said. “We need to work on a specific text. The Ministry has today put forward a series of ideas that may be a step forward, but which need to be specified,” he insisted, warning that not all cases can be resolved by means of a regulation, but that regulations with the rank of law are also required.
However, the General Council of the Official Colleges of Real Estate Agents (Coapi) has insisted that the legislation not be modified, but that only a regulatory deployment be carried out for the preservation of temporary rentals. Therefore, they have pointed out that the ministry’s proposals coincide “to a large extent” with their approach.
For its part, the Federation of Associations of Real Estate Companies (Fadei) has valued the meeting this Wednesday “as One more step towards achieving an effective, transparent seasonal rental market and without fraudulent behaviour.” In addition, the employers’ association has warned of the need to differentiate between seasonal and long-term rentals in the methods of searching for rental housing on real estate portals. “If all rentals are treated equally, it is logical that a distortion occurs,” said the president of Fadei, Miguel Ángel Gómez Huevas.
Veto on tourist apartments
The Minister of Housing has also recalled the Government’s plans to modify the Horizontal Property Law so that communities of neighbours can veto the creation of tourist apartments in their buildings, following the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. To this end, Rodríguez has announced that next week a round of contacts with the various political groups with the aim of gathering support to carry out the regulatory change, showing herself convinced that there is “unanimity”.
The law already provides that a favourable vote of three-fifths of the residents can “condition” the installation of a tourist flat, but the Government intends to go a step further and specify that it can be prohibited, as the minister herself pointed out in an interview given to 20 minutes. In this regard, the head of Housing has stressed that this is a “surgical” modification of the law in which it is intended to change the wording to require prior authorization from residents and, therefore, the possibility of veto. “It is not a question of majorities, but of the wording,” he said.
