The President of the Government demands at the Design Museum of Barcelona to prioritise residential use over tourist use and asks the communities to apply the Housing Law. This intervention comes a day before the approval of the housing decree in the Council of Ministers.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has chosen Barcelona to set the course of his housing policy. During the presentation of the report Future Lives: A Day in 2050 at the DHUB Design Museum, Sánchez has urged the autonomous communities to take advantage of the tools provided by the Housing Law to expand access and limit uses that drive residents out of their neighbourhoods.
“We need to govern the housing market and focus once and for all on accessibility, prioritising residential use of housing over tourist use,” the president declared. This statement summarises the shift that the government wants to make to the state regulations, which will have its first test this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Ministers will approve the new housing decree this Tuesday, which will come into effect once published and will need to be ratified later in the Congress. The regulation arrives with negotiations still open between the PSOE and its parliamentary partners, who have recently raised the tone of their demands.
Sumar is calling for more robust measures regarding rents, contracts, and evictions, while Podemos maintains more restrictive positions against speculative housing purchases. Among the demands being discussed are greater protection against evictions, stabilisation of rental contracts, and facilities for people without savings to access property.
In parallel, Junts has shown willingness to negotiate, although it asks the parties to abandon positions it considers too ideologically driven. The president of the Parlament, Josep Rull, has defended the search for a “common denominator” and warned that it will be difficult to reach an agreement if the forces “entrench themselves”.
The parliamentary arithmetic forces the government to reconcile the requests of the left with the conditions of Junts and other necessary formations to ratify the decree. Social pressure has added a new factor to the equation: the case of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman facing eviction, has sparked protests and a camp at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
“Patriotism also means preventing an 87-year-old woman, like Maricarmen, from ending up on the street after a lifetime in her home. The government will approve a royal decree with urgent measures to alleviate the housing emergency that so many people in our country are suffering. It is the result of dialogue and incorporates proposals and initiatives from the groups. I ask all parliamentary forces to work to push it forward in Congress. With a broad perspective, a sense of state, and responsibility.”
In a Catalan context, Sánchez has highlighted the policies of the socialist administrations. He has assured that both the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council place the housing emergency among their priorities. The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has called for limits against speculation: “We need to impose limits on the unbridled power of money, greed, and speculation,” he stated.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has linked housing with citizens' right to remain in the city. “We have placed the axis of our project on the right to stay, and that starts with housing,” he pointed out. Collboni has highlighted the increase in protected housing, measures against speculative purchases, and the plan to eliminate tourist rentals.
The decree that will be approved this Tuesday will have direct effects on the daily lives of residents in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia. The regulation will set the requirements to limit seasonal rentals, the deadlines to apply restrictions to tourist rentals, and the conditions to access rental assistance. The autonomous communities will have to decide how to apply the tools of the Housing Law in the coming months.
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