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3 things you should know about the new housing law

On May 26, a new Housing Law 12/2023 for the right to housing came into force. The respective law seeks to homogeneously regulate the most important and outstanding aspects of housing policies, mainly affecting the Urban Leasing Law.

To learn a little more about the new law, we will tell you about its most important points.

Rental price ceilings

For privately owned housing with reduced rental prices, tax and urban planning benefits will be provided. The maximum limits of rental prices will be proportional and adjusted to the public benefits obtained, whether urban, fiscal or of any other nature, determined by the Administration that grants them.

Stressed residential market areas

What do they mean by this? A stressed residential market area simply means residential areas where there is a risk of insufficient housing supply for the population. The respective housing administrations may declare these zones following the respective procedure according to the law. 

It should be carried out by the Administration by conforming rules such as, for example, the prior obtaining of information related to the situation of the residential market in the area (including indicators of income level of resident households and its evolution over time), this will serve to measure the economic effort that households have to make in order to have decent and adequate housing.

All required information must be made publicly available and the resolution must be based on deficiencies or inadequacies of the housing market in the area.

Affordable housing fund.

It will be possible to count on a public-private partnership to create an affordable housing fund, to provide the territorial administrations with new instruments, generating an incentivized affordable housing stock or social housing to recover the balance between supply and demand of rental housing, also relying on price moderation.

The affordable housing fund will be regulated through agreements with private rental housing management entities, third sector entities or major operators.

These entities will aim to respond to and accompany individuals and families with fewer resources, increase the stock of social and affordable housing (especially for areas with a stressed residential market), and promote the commitment to allocate a minimum percentage of their stock to social or affordable housing.

These and others are the most important features to know when renting a home under the new housing rights law.