Spain's left-wing PSOE closes the door on regulating tourist apartments in the Housing Law

The secretary general of the socialist group in Congress, Isaura Leal, has closed the door to Unidas Podemos's idea of including a compromise amendment in the Housing Act to regulate tourist accommodation. She also wanted to clarify that including this issue would be encroaching on the competences of local councils and autonomous communities.

"We have reached the regulatory limits," said Leal at a press conference in Congress, explaining that the regulation that will be voted on on Thursday in the plenary session of the Lower House is part of a state framework that provides autonomous communities with the necessary tools to regulate housing policies.

As she explained, the PSOE has the "will" to regulate the "abuse" of housing prices and tourist apartments in Spain with the aim of "protecting neighbourhood communities", but in a different scope to the state law. "We have done so, in fact, in some of the local councils that suffer the most from the impact of tourist accommodation," she added.

At this point, she clarified that this does not mean that the government should not "be respectful" of the competence framework that corresponds to a state law. "We believe and we are convinced that we have reached the maximum," added Isaura Leal.

Podemos: if there's a will, there's a way

United Podemos opposed this statement, with its spokesman, Pablo Echenique, insisting in the Lower House that "if there is political will", the "appropriate legislative technique" can be found to include tourist accommodation regulation in the Housing Law.

In the words of Gerardo Pisarello, the member of parliament of the confederal group and first secretary of the Congress Bureau, the tourist apartment regulation is one of the " loopholes" in the law.

"The law is a first step but there are holes that must be filled so that investment funds and speculators cannot make a mockery of the true spirit of the law: to put an end to abusive rent increases," the member of parliament remarked.

Podemos had agreed to put forward to its investiture bloc members its proposal to include, using a compromise amendment that they will also bring to the PSOE's attention, a limit on tourist accommodation in areas where the rental market is under stress. The party, therefore, wanted to promote a specific regulation on tourist quotas to try to stop large-scale landlords or vulture funds from using "subterfuge" to avoid the rental price regulation, taking properties off the residential market and into the holiday market.

More specifically, Podemos's proposal gave an example that if a 2% cap on tourist rental supply were introduced in the final phase of the law in an overstretched area with 10,000 inhabitants, no more than 200 tourist rental places could be offered. They also called for more inspections of all tourist accommodation.

On the issue of tourist apartments, Pisarello urged to " keep fighting" until Thursday so that the regulation of tourist accommodation "is an instrument that autonomous communities and local councils can access, so that seasonal rentals "do not become an escape route".

The spokesman and leader of Más País, Íñigo Errejón, said that the law, as it came out of the commission, is "good" and "necessary". Although he also pointed out that it "lacks" some aspects concerning a "more rigorous" control of seasonal rentals and tourist apartments.

The government denies that the law encourages 'squatters'

Much of the criticism voiced by groups such as PP and Vox is that the law protects squatters and is detrimental to owners.

An argument that is also defended by the Platform of People Affected by Squatting, which has recently conveyed "the firmest rejection of the content of the Housing Law", considering that it "ignores" and "undermines" those affected by squatting. "In no case does the Platform of People Affected by Squatting cease to share the need for any citizen to have access to decent housing, albeit within the framework of legality and the management of public administrations", it stated. 

In response to these accusations, Isaura Leal criticised the right-wing groups for "distorting" the bill and denied that the law would protect squatting.

For his part, Pablo Echenique criticised the right for suggesting that protecting the vulnerable population from evictions means encouraging squatting, as it generates "aporophobia" and "criminalises poverty", which should be eradicated. Consequently, he said that "any democrat" should welcome such a provision in the Housing Law.