Months after the Generalitat requested it, the limits on rent increases in areas with stressed prices will come into force in February in Catalonia. This was announced this Thursday by the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, after meeting in Madrid with the housing minister, Isabel Rodríguez. According to what she has stated, the representative of the central government has committed to approving the declaration of stressed areas that the Government sent him in August, as well as the reference price index of the rentan essential step so that in these areas the boundaries included in the state housing law approved in May of last year.
The Government included 140 Catalan cities and towns -in which 6.2 million people live, the 80.6% of the population of the community – in its list of municipalities with stressed rental prices. Almost a hundred of them are concentrated in Barcelonayour area metropolitan and the largest cities in the regions of the Valles. Territori sent the information to the central government in August so that – as stipulated in the housing law – the Executive would endorse both the report and the price index for a period of three yearsextendable each year through the same procedure.
Capella then assured that he trusted that the Executive would give quickly seen good and that price controls could begin to be applied in the stressed Catalan municipalities in the same month of August. But said approval of the Government, then in office, has been delayed. The ‘counsellor’ has been making things worse in recent months.
Tension and limits
To be considered as a stressed area, there are two requirements that establishes the housing law. The first is that, in the area, the burden median of the mortgage or of rentplus supplies, exceed the 30% of income means of a home. The second is that the price of the rent there uploaded at least three points above the CPI in the last five years. Only one of the two conditions must be met.
The housing law establishes that, in those areas declared stressed, tenants may benefit from the termination of the contract at a extraordinary extension on an annual basis, and for a maximum period of three yearsunder the same terms and conditions of the Current contract. In new contracts, the price will also be limited to the rent of the previous contract, once the annual update clause of that contract has been applied. Furthermore, in the case of big forks (ten or more homes owned, although the Generalitat approved lowering it to five), the income may not exceed the maximum limit set by the property index. reference prices that the ministry has committed to approving in February, which depending on the case could mean price reductions.
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As an exception, there may be an increase of up to 10% in the event that there has been rehabilitated The building. In general, prices could not rise in stressed areas by more than 2% in 2023, a 3% in 2024and what is subsequently established by the reference index for the annual update of rental contracts that the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has been commissioned to prepare.
In a statement, Housing has confirmed that the minister has informed the counselor that the Rental Reference Price Index It will be published throughout February. Likewise, he has highlighted that the Government has committed to investing more than 200 million of euros in Catalonia within the state housing plan 2022-2025, of which it has already transferred more than 100 million, to which others will be added 52 million in 2024. He has also highlighted that the community has already received 298 million for housing and neighborhood rehabilitation and 126 million for the promotion of housing for social rental from European funds, as well as others 182 million of state programs for the rehabilitation of public buildings.