The major housing decree with which the Government intended to end the term will have to wait. There are loose ends to be tied up, largely due to the distance separating the two extremes of the investiture bloc, Junts and Podemos, which has led the Executive to postpone the approval of the text until after the summer. The coalition partners, however, accept the delay as a mere setback, despite the blow it represents to the roadmap that La Moncloa had designed as the close of the political term. Both the PSOE and Sumar are optimistic and assure that there is room to negotiate and reach a consensus on an issue of utmost urgency for the citizens.
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The Government had been negotiating the decree for weeks, a tailored package of measures capable of satisfying the concerns (or at least preventing them from voting against) all the formations of the investiture bloc, which have disparate and sometimes opposing interests. The goal was — and still is — to address different fronts to avoid another defeat in the Cortes, as happened in April with the extension of rents, and to provide responses to an increasingly pressing crisis. The Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, urged the PSOE to present measures again on the matter after the right-wing parties (PP, Vox, Junts, and UPN) rejected that text. The PNV abstained.
With these elements, Sumar announced last week that the content of the decree was agreed upon with the PSOE. The socialists, unlike their minority partner, were always reluctant to be sure it would be approved this Tuesday, at the last ordinary Council of Ministers before the August break. The announcement, far from dispelling doubts about the solidity of the agreement, generated nervousness and ended up highlighting precisely the opposite: that there are still issues pending closure. Especially for Junts and Podemos.
The greatest resistance is concentrated between the two parties. Their starting positions are very far apart. While the former demand stronger measures to limit rental prices, curb speculation, and protect tenants from evictions, the latter are wary of state intervention in the market (although they once supported the price control law in Catalonia, which was later overturned by the Constitutional Court), demand greater protection for small landlords, and a focus on increasing supply.
In response to these demands, the Executive has been studying how to square the circle. The rental moratorium, a major demand of the left-wing bloc, has been paired with tax breaks on personal income tax for landlords, as requested by Carles Puigdemont’s group. The PNV, for its part, demands that the decree include regulation of seasonal rentals and modification of the land law, among other things. This last demand is questioned by Ione Belarra’s formation.
Sources from Podemos, whose priority is the extension of rents and the eviction moratorium, insisted this Monday that reforming the land law is a red line they will not accept: “We will be vigilant to ensure that the future decree, if it really goes to the Council of Ministers, does not introduce any changes to that law.”
Junts also reacted to the Government’s decision to postpone the decree. They requested “a 180-degree turn in housing policies” and again presented their recipe to address the problem, which includes tax cuts on rents, mortgages, and housing savings accounts, and more investment in the public residential park. “Again they will ask us for a yes or no to an entire mixed package of measures, as if housing were all or nothing,” wrote the party spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, on X.
Despite these harsh tones, Government sources assure that positions have come closer. Dialogue with the PNV is positive, Junts remains at the negotiating table, and PSOE and Sumar trust they can attract Podemos with measures for the most vulnerable households and that they will not carry their veto on the land law reform to the end. The independentist group would accept the extension of rents, although they demand more fiscal measures, some changes regarding evictions, and regulation of seasonal rentals.
The housing access crisis is increasingly urgent. The shortage of homes — a deficit that the Bank of Spain has raised to 750,000 units between 2021 and 2025 — and the relentless rise in prices have turned the residential emergency into society’s main puzzle, as surveys and constant citizen protests show. But there are no magic solutions, especially for a problem that has been entrenched for years, multifaceted, and that requires bridging the very distant positions coexisting in the investiture bloc.
This severity is also one of the reasons why the Government trusts it can reach an agreement. In this regard, Executive sources assure there is goodwill on the part of the political groups, aware that solutions must be found to a problem that is suffocating citizens. Reaching a consensus could also be positive ahead of next year’s super electoral cycle, in which general elections will be held, as well as municipal and regional elections in most communities.