In what would be a major market intervention, the President of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, says his government is studying ways to stop ‘speculative buying’ in the northeastern region.
Authorities in Catalonia are looking at ways to ban “speculative purchases” in the property market in the north-east region.
The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, announced this Wednesday in the Catalonian Parliament that the regional Ministry of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition will analyse the legal possibilities for prohibiting the purchase of housing for speculation.
This comes after calls for more robust government intervention in the market from left-wing parties at both the regional and national levels.
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Illa said that such a measure would involve significant state involvement in the housing market, so that, before adopting it, it would be necessary to “study it well” and act “with security and certainty.”
This comes as the Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for legal measures to “put a stop the purchase of housing for non-residential use.” Inaction in the housing market has been viewed by many in Spain, even those on the left, as the major failure of the Socialist government and is something Sánchez and Illa at both national and regional level are now attempting to address.
Speaking at the European Council, Sánchez announced that Spain is going to put “the housing emergency” on the table at the European level and proposed measures including the ban on non-residential purchases, new EU policy levers to act “in areas under stress as a result of the pressure of tourism”, and the creation of “a specific fund for the construction of social housing at European level.”
READ ALSO: How much does a property in Spain cost on average in 2025?
Illa confirmed that councillor Sílvia Paneque had already been commissioned to analyse the legal viability of such a move, which also includes the possibility of limiting the number of properties a person can own.
The regional head also defended his government’s record, reminding the chamber that he has already taken relevant decisions on housing, such as the social housing agreement with Sareb, the regulation of rents in some areas and the limitation of tourist flats in Barcelona, and that it will continue to evaluate new intervention policies if they are necessary to guarantee access to decent housing.
“The Government has sent out clear messages on housing. We are not just studying,” he said.
The debate comes after the Pla Estratègic Metropolità de Barcelona (PEMB) published a report concluding that restricting speculative transactions and only allowing people to buy homes for their own use would be legal in stressed market areas, according to the Constitution and urban planning legislation.
Direct market intervention could have some legal basus then, it seems. But for the moment, it remains unknown if for Illa and the Generalitat a ‘speculative purchase’ would be considered when someone buys a second home or a third or how exactly they could be curtailed.
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However, some details of the plan are known.
“Currently, there is no limitation on buying homes to not to live in them, in other words, to speculate,” Pablo Feu, author of the report, told Spanish news outlet La Sexta, suggesting some type of undefined limit could be introduced within the law.
Therefore, the proposal is to place temporary limitations on speculation only in so-called “stressed areas” rather than everywhere.
The declaration of ‘stressed areas’ was an integral part of the Housing Law or Ley de Vivienda, which came into force in 2023, and has become a key
A stressed area is defined as one where there is a high risk of insufficient housing supply for its population. In order to be declared as such, it must meet one of two pieces of criteria:
- The first is when the average cost of rent or mortgage for homes plus related expenses exceeds 30 percent of the average salary of the population in the area.
- The second is if in the previous five years, the purchase or rental price has experienced an accumulated increase of three points above the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
If an area is approved to become a ‘stressed’ area then this can mean rent caps are introduced, tenants will be able to get extensions to contracts and tax deductions for landlords will be implemented.
READ ALSO: What happens when a city in Spain is declared a ‘stressed’ rental zone?
