The Ministry of Housing published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) the declaration of seven new municipalities as tense rental market zones: Santiago de Compostela in Galicia; Gijón, Avilés, Llanes, Gozón, and Cabrales in Asturias; and Basauri in Euskadi. According to data released by the central Government, there are already 317 municipalities in five autonomous communities (Catalonia, Euskadi, Navarra, Galicia, and Asturias) that have adopted this figure which limits prices in areas where rent increases in previous years have been disproportionate. The ministry estimates that 9.3 million people live in the territories where this mechanism applies.
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Among the new municipalities added to the list is Santiago de Compostela. The Galician capital thus becomes the second city in this community after A Coruña to use this mechanism included in the housing law. Neither of the two is governed by the PP, as the party led in Galicia by Alfonso Rueda has been critical of the measure. However, it is the only PP autonomous government that has allowed the development of price controls in its territory, since the law only permits this declaration at the request of the regional administration. The city of A Coruña has a PSOE mayor and Santiago de Compostela, a BNG mayor.
The mayor of Santiago, nationalist Goretti Sanmartín, considers it a “very important” tool to address one of the city’s main problems. The Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, socialist candidate for the mayoralty of the Galician capital, has also welcomed the declaration as a “useful response.” The arrival of tourists to the Galician capital has multiplied in recent years and has not only complicated the search for housing for residents in this city but also for students of the largest Galician university. Some university students have to stay during the academic year in neighboring municipalities due to the lack or high cost of apartments.
Blanco argues that the measure will contain prices, promote “a more balanced market,” and increase “stable contracts.” The Xunta, however, considers it an instrument that “has effects contrary to those desired by the City Council itself.” The PP regional government claims that the declaration of tense zones removes housing from the market and provides a figure about A Coruña to support its argument: in July 2025, 727 rental contracts were formalized, and in May of this year, already with price controls in place, 320. A counterargument from left-wing administrations is that the lower number of contracts is also due to greater stabilization of existing rentals. That is, since landlords do not find the incentive to raise prices, many prefer to keep their current tenants.
The declaration of Santiago, six areas in Asturias (where the tense area figure will not apply to entire municipalities but by neighborhoods), and the Basauri locality in Biscay was published this Wednesday in the BOE and will come into effect on Thursday. From that day, all new rental contracts in the new zones must be referenced to the price of the previous contract, without exceeding it (except for some exceptions if an improvement in housing conditions is claimed). The administrations must also implement a plan with urgent measures to increase rental supply with the goal that within three years “the rental market situation has been reversed,” the Government points out.
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The Ministry of Housing argues that the application of tense zones “helps contain prices while structural measures such as increasing the supply of affordable housing are developed.” For the department led by Isabel Rodríguez, the measure is “effective” and cites what has happened in three communities as an example.
In Catalonia, which has had these limitations for two years, rental market prices have fallen by 4.7% in the city of Barcelona and 1.3% in all declared tense market zones. During that period, the ministry adds, the regular rental stock has grown by 20,994 contracts. In the 14 municipalities of Gipuzkoa that have this figure, new rentals fell by 3.5% and the number of active contracts increased by 3.2%, according to data released by the Basque Government this week. In Navarra, the price decrease in these localities exceeds 8%, also according to the regional administration’s records.
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