The government has decided to get serious about seasonal renting, a formula that is increasingly gaining ground in the rental market and is used to circumvent housing law (a slip of the government). For example, those who want to rent an apartment for six or twelve months will be able to continue to do so, but with certain requirements that act as a filter. The aim: to prevent landlords from renting their properties seasonally in order to avoid the requirements that only apply to regular rentals.

“We will not accept fraud in the law,” the government warns.

Farewell to the open barThe announcement was made today by the Minister of Housing Isabel Rodríguez, following the meeting held with the working group created precisely to regulate seasonal rentals: the government will apply filters to guarantee that temporary rentals are exactly that: contracts for very specific situations, such as a student or a postdoctoral researcher who needs to be alone for months of the course, and not a tool that landlords resort to to evade the Law on Urban Rentals (LAU).

Temporary… and provable. To achieve this, the Government will require two conditions from landlords who want to act as a filter. First, to sign a temporary lease, the last word must be justified as “temporary”. Like? The Minister focused on the case this morning: “If it is a school year, it will be nine months; if it is a cultural festival or a sporting event, it will be one, two months… however long it takes. If it is an investigation, it can be one year, it can be one year and three months,” commented Rodriguez, as an example.

The head of housing also insisted that it would not be enough to respect this “causality”. It also has to be proven. “We need to be able to prove it when formalizing the contract. Just as we can use our pay slip or our work history in a regular rental contract, the idea here is that this causality is necessary to justify that the contract is actually due, the relevance of temporality,” said the minister, claiming to have evidence that there are such apartments used as tourist accommodation during the summer months.

A registry to prevent fraud. The second innovation is the mandatory inclusion of such contracts in a single state registry, an instrument also proposed for vacation rentals. The goal: to strengthen control. Álvarez explained how the ministry will develop the tools it will use to achieve this, as well as how it will develop them. The government will prepare an urgent royal decree that will develop Article 3 of the LAU. Efe goes further, stating that he wants the Housing to be ready by the end of the summer.

What is TARGET? Or goals. Álvarez was a little upset this morning. In his appearance after meeting with the working group, he insisted that the Government wants to “protect, regulate and guarantee” tenants who really need temporary accommodation, such as students or researchers. Another objective is to prevent landlords from resorting to seasonal rentals, or even exceeding the price limit, to “avoid compliance with the LAU”, which protects contracts for a minimum of five years.

“Protect, develop, regulate, provide legal security and guarantees for people who need this type of accommodation to prevent what happens: This phenomenon creates tension in the housing rental market, while this tension causes an increase in prices,” he says. Housing.

A vehicle for ascension. The government’s decision comes amid a surge in seasonal rentals. Just a few months ago, Idealista published a report showing that in the first quarter, such rentals grew by 56% year-on-year, while permanent rental supply saw the opposite trend, falling by 15%. And not only that.

The growth in these types of seasonal deals has reached a significant market share of around 11%. İdealista estimated that in places like San Sebastián or Barcelona, ​​30% of available homes are offered as seasonal rentals. In Cadiz, they represent 21% and in Madrid, 15%. In less stressed areas, this method was practically negligible.

In the most touristic locations and where there is the greatest demand, the highest percentages are explained by the profitability offered to homeowners by renting their apartments seasonally to foreigners who can pay rents well above the values ​​​​they would have to apply if they focused on the local market. .

critical voicesNot everyone is keen on the Government’s formula. Nor do they share the view that it will help stop the flight of properties from the traditional rental market. The ABC is particularly reassuring of the Tenants’ Union, which has warned of the “inefficiency” of the measure. “The proposed regulation allows temporary lettings to continue to be used to charge tenants fees or to force them to pay a higher deposit than is permitted. This remains a loophole to bypass the price regulation and increase the price each year, something that is common with a normal lease. The group points out that this can only be done every five years.

Image | Anastasia Tarasova (Unsplash)

In Xataka | Barcelona believed it could control the rental market. The rental market had very different ideas