New Housing Law 2023

THE Spanish government proposed a new housing law in February 2022. This new law, which is the first of its kind, has finally been agreed upon and is pending approval from the Spanish Parliament. It focuses on rental properties in what they are calling ‘stressed areas’.

A ‘stressed area’ under the new law is an area where the cost of the mortgage or rent, plus bills and other basic property costs, exceeds 30 per cent of the average income or where the rent has risen by 5 per cent above the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

This new law has redefined what a large and small landowner is. A large landowner is now someone who owns five properties or more, it used to be 10. A small landowner owns less than five properties. The most controversial part of this new law is the fact that the tenant will no longer pay the real estate fees.

To ensure there are no loopholes in this new law they have prohibited the inclusion of extra charges (community fee, garbage removal, etc) and you cannot come to an ‘agreement between parties’ contrary to the housing agreement. They have included tax benefits that will help offset these extra costs for the owners.

Another big change is the elimination of the CPI when calculating the cost of the rent, it is capped and cannot increase by more than 2 per cent in 2023 and 3 per cent in 2024. They have also included new measures to protect against evictions.