ROGUE landlords operating in Catalunya will soon be subject to tighter controls after regional lawmakers narrowly passed a decree doubling-down on recent housing reforms.
The proposed law change passed by just one vote in a nail-biting poll in the Catalan parliament on Wednesday, thanks to support from the ruling socialist PSC, pro-independence ERC and far-left Comuns.
The motion will now be processed through the Generalitat – as the Catalan parliament is known – as a bill, meaning it will remain subject to change as parties negotiate its content before formally ratifying it in law.
Under the terms of the decree, rogue landlords flouting housing rules and ignoring rent caps will be targeted with tighter controls and harsher punishments.
The government says the legislation will ensure ‘greater control over the market, reduce fraud, ensure stricter compliance with the law and combat abusive practices’.
For example, landlords of rental properties must inform potential tenants of the maximum rent they are legally allowed to charge in the area where the property is located, based on the government’s official reference index.
That move follows in the footsteps of the introduction of rent caps across 140 Catalan municipalities in March 2024, which caused the average price of new rental agreements to fall by nearly 5%, according to Barcelona’s Metropolitan Housing Observatory.
Areas affected by the law include popular tourist and expat hotspots such as Barcelona, Girona, Lloret de Mart and Sitges.
Future tenants must also be made aware of whether the home is owned by a large-scale landlord or not, defined in law as someone who owns ten or more rental properties.
Landlords who fail to correctly state the rent of the property and the maximum rent allowed as per the index will be subject to fines of between €6,000 and €12,000.
They will also be obliged to register security deposits with the official security deposit registry or face strict penalties.
“We are enhancing transparency in the rental market,” said finance minister Alicia Romero during an address to the regional chamber.
Attempts to implement the reforms into law have been far from plain-sailing, with ardent opposition from the Partido Popular (PP), pro-independence Junts per Catalunya, CUP, Vox and Alianca Catalana.
Angels Esteller, an MP representing the conservative PP, blasted the proposal as a ‘monstrous decree-law’ and said regional president Salvador Illa’s housing policy was ‘interventionist and confiscatory’.
Illa, a key ally of prime minister Pedro Sanchez, has faced mounting pressure to tackle a housing crisis that has triggered mass protests, with locals increasingly priced out of their own neighbourhoods by surging rents.
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