Madrid – The Spanish government yesterday obtained final approval of its housing law, which will limit rental prices in areas with the greatest demand, after obtaining the green light from the Senate a few days before the municipal and regional elections on 28 May.
This is the first housing law for democracy in Spain since the end of the Francisco Franco dictatorship in 1975. Its text had already been endorsed by the deputies at the end of April, after intense debates and attempts by the opposition to modify it. The Senate now gave it the go-ahead with 134 out of 252 favorable votes.
With the new measure, “housing ceases to be a luxury good and becomes a right,” the president of the government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, celebrated on Twitter, stating that it was a “historic day.” “We turned housing into the fifth pillar of the welfare state,” said the president.
The Executive was seeking its rapid approval so that the text would enter into force before the elections on May 28, considered as the prelude to the hard-fought legislative elections at the end of the year.
After long negotiations between the governing coalition of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos with their allies, the text plans to decouple rent increases from the consumer price index, and put a cap of 3% in 2024, before setting a new index for 2025 .
Source: Ambito
