A turnaround in the Generalitat’s housing policy. The Government has finally decided to accept the Comuns’ proposed law to limit speculative property purchases. After receiving the backing of legal reports, Salvador Illa’s team has decided not to present its own bill and will instead work on the text that Jéssica Albiach’s group registered in Parliament last November.
The Regional Minister for Territory, Sílvia Paneque, has confirmed this change in strategy: “We are working on the Comuns’ proposal.” This move seeks to ensure that housing is used primarily for residential purposes and not as a financial investment asset.
The price of saying “yes” to the Catalan accounts
This agreement comes at a critical moment in the budget negotiations. The Comuns have made curbing speculation a non-negotiable condition for supporting the Generalitat’s accounts. The Government’s goal is to have the budget approved before April, and the agreement with Albiach clears the way, with only ERC left to add to the equation.
Although the PSC initially proposed using taxation to discourage these purchases, pressure from its partners and expert opinions have tipped the balance toward reforming the urban planning law.
What does the Comuns’ proposal say about preventing speculative home buying?
The purple party’s initiative seeks to ensure that each person can only purchase one home to live in. To achieve this, they propose reforming Catalonia’s Urban Planning Law, allowing local councils in areas under pressure to veto purchases that are not for residential purposes.
The law provides for specific exceptions: the purchase of properties for immediate family members (children, parents, or grandchildren) and the acquisition of second homes will be allowed, provided they are in a municipality other than the usual one.
In addition, after the purchase, the owner will have 12 months to convert the apartment into their primary residence.
A long way to go
The creation and implementation of the regulation is not immediate. The Government warns, however, that“tangential legal modifications” will be necessary to make the regulation robust in the face of possible appeals. The aim is to strictly limit the ban to technical recommendations to prevent the Constitutional Court from overturning the measure.
For their part, the Comuns are keeping up the pressure on the timetable. They are not only demanding that the law be passed, but also that the ban on speculators be in force within a maximum period of six months.