Approval of Decree Law 6/2024, on urgent housing measures in Catalonia

03/05/2024

Approval of Decree Law 6/2024, on urgent housing measures in Catalonia

En los medios

On April 26, 2024, Decree Law 6/2024, approved by the Government of the Generalitat de Cataluña, on urgent housing measures, came into force. This Decree Law will have to be validated within 30 days by the Permanent Deputation of the Parliament, as the latter has been dissolved as a result of the call for early elections.

This Decree-Law contains important changes regarding the regulation of leases for rooms and seasonal leases, information obligations to be included in lease offers and in the contracts themselves, and measures to increase the public rental stock through the establishment of preferential acquisition rights in certain cases of transfer of housing in stressed areas.

Changes in room and seasonal leases	The Decree-Law introduces a new regulation of seasonal leases, by applying the rules of residential leases relating to the deposit and determination of the rent, its update, increase for improvements and assumption of general expenses and individual services, to leases entered into on a temporary basis for professional reasons, work, studies, medical care or assistance, temporary situations while awaiting delivery of the property or return to the usual residence, or for other similar uses that are not different from those of a residence. An important consequence of the foregoing is that these seasonal leases, which until now had been outside the state and autonomous community measures for limiting rents in stressed areas, will be assimilated to ordinary housing leases for these purposes. Only temporary leases exclusively for leisure, vacation or recreational purposes will be excluded from this assimilation, which must be stated in the contract and duly accredited. The Decree-Law also extends the effects of the limitation of rents in stressed areas to leases for rooms, establishing that if the dwelling is located in a stressed residential market area, the sum of the rents agreed upon in the contracts in force at the same time may not exceed the maximum rent applicable to the unitary lease of the property.

Duties of disclosure in lease offers and contracts	The Decree-Law amends several articles of Law 18/2007, on the Right to Housing, in the sense of introducing new information obligations in the lease offers and in the contracts themselves, such as the rental price resulting from the application of the reference price index system that corresponds to the rental price containment regime, the last rent of the lease contract that has been in force in the last five years in the same dwelling, or the condition of large property holder of the Owner, if the dwelling is located in an area with a stressed residential market.

Establishment of rights of first refusal in the event of transfer of any property located in an area declared as a residential market with a stressed market	The regulation establishes a new right of first refusal in favor of the Administration of the Generalitat in the event of transfer of any dwelling located in an area declared to be a stressed residential market, provided that it is owned by a large property holder legal entity that is registered in the register of large holders of properties.