The Catalan law had broad social support – the explicit support of more than 4,000 social and cultural entities – and a sufficient parliamentary majority: it was approved in September 2020 with 71 votes in favor and 63 against. It also served to lower rents by an average of 5% in regulated cities, those with more than 20,000 inhabitants, as they have not tired of repeating since Union of Llogateres since last March 10, when the Constitutional Court overturned the disputed regulation of rents after the appeal filed by the Popular Party for a matter of jurisdiction.
Although the recent sentence will not affect signed contracts, it is decisive for the many people pending to sign a renewal and whose owners were waiting for the resolution of the TC, trusting that it would be the one that has finally been, its suspension; so the social movements in defense of the right to housing, they are in a hurry to recover this regulation “as soon as possible”. This is how they have transferred this gray Monday in person to both the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, like to ‘president’ of the Generalitat Pere Aragones. Both leaders have agreed that the way to recover the regulation of rents is to incorporate it into the Housing Law that is being debated in the Congress of Deputies. Something that the three parties – social movements, Generalitat and city council – consider “strictly necessary and a priority”.
price freeze
The Catalan law suspended today established that the rental price could not increase with respect to the previous contract and that if a home had a price above the average rent in the area, the new contract could not exceed the price index of the Generalitat and provided for penalties of 3,000 to 90,000 euros in case of non-compliance; fines that from union They have always criticized that they are not imposing themselves.
Social movements, the city council -at least the ‘comuns’ sector- and Generalitat -at least ERC- also agree that the regulation during his year of life worked: the market was not stopped and prices were contained.
Speculation “out of control”
the mayor Ada Colau He pointed out after the meeting that the Catalan capital is the most interested in the central government approving this regulation since “Barcelona is the most affected city, in which there are more people living on a rental basis, more than 40% of the population , more than 500,000 families; and more than 50,000 contracts each year”. “We are very urgent to avoid speculation out of control,” she said.
Colau has stressed that the starting point for the regulation of rents that should be included in the future housing law must be the Catalan law recently suspended by the Constitutional Court for a matter of jurisdiction since, he insists, “has been proven effective“While this has been in force, it has not slowed down the rental market as some feared and has served to contain prices,” the mayor recalled.
“The law in its current wording would not be effective,” added the mayor in a direct criticism of the PSOE (and its view of the management of the housing crisis).
No practical effects
As explained by spokesmen for the Union of Llogateres after the two meetings, like Colau, the Aragonès ‘president’ has made it very clear to them that the state law “must retake the Catalan regulation of rents, and that the current text proposed by the state government would have no practical effect”. It is not a minor detail ERC votes in Congress are essential for approval of the law in Congress.
Both the Barcelona and Madrid tenant unions as the platforms of those affected by the mortgage throughout the State -entities that have led the legislative reforms- have been pointing out for many weeks the same thing that both Aragonès and Colau have recognized today: that theto law for the right to housing currently promoted in the period of amendments part of a “totally insufficient” text. Therefore, the efforts of all of them are now put into amendments, up for grabs in the coming weeks. “Regarding the regulation of rental prices, the current law would be inapplicable and would have no effect in Catalonia or in any city in the State”, underline the promoters of a Housing Law drafted by the citizens who were ignored in the Congress.
It is the second time that Aragonès has met with the social movements for the right to housing in a few weeks. On the 9th, he sat down with the PAH to talk about the new application of the Catalan anti-eviction law, a law that, like the one that regulates rents, the PP already announced from minute one that would appeal to the Constitutionalhabitual practice of the party that has already appealed (and won) against the previous Catalan anti-eviction law.