The Official State Gazette will soon publish a new mechanism that could lead to a revolution in the search for housing.
Housing is today one of the most controversial political issues. Attempts to tame the situation continue without the administrations having achieved their objective: the owner continues to decide when and how much to rent his home. The latest measure that will soon come into force will be to set a reference index through which the Government will determine the amount, between a minimum and a maximum, at which to rent a property. This measure is not a current occurrence, but comes from the new Housing Law, which came into force on May 26, 2023, before the general elections in July. Now it remains to be seen how it affects the new rental price of apartments in Valencia, since any owner can consult these limits indicated by the Government and download the report to find out what value their rental property should have. For now the rule will only apply to areas considered stressed, a statement that still has no point in the Valencian Community.
In NUWE we explain all the details of the latest measure announced by the Government to try to control and dominate the price of rental housing.
- When does the new rental price come into effect?
- Who is a great floor fork
- What is a tensioned zone
- What are the stressed areas in Valencia, Alicante and Castellón?
- How to download the Rental Price Reference Informative Certificate for Rental Prices
When does the new rental price come into effect?
If the deadlines established by the Government itself are met, it will be from March 13 when this new limit on the rental price for areas considered to be under stress will be taken into account. It will be there when the Official State Gazette will give reason for the new regulatory text that will try, once again, the control by the administration of the price that each owner puts to rent a house. The focus now is on two issues: large tenants and stressed areas. The truth is that, in the case of the delimitation of areas with lack of supply and excess demand for the rental of apartments, the measure is exclusively of an autonomous nature. For the time being, the stressed areas are only indicated in the autonomous community of Catalonia, a region which, for its part, has opposed the central government being the one to determine the limits on rental prices.
Who is a great fork of apartments: the public enemy?
This is one of the keys of this new Housing Law, a rule that in its first year of effect has not served to substantially reverse the dynamics in terms of rental housing, both regular and vacation. The price has not stopped rising during the last months and the tendency in the sector is that they continue to rise, ignoring any political control. The regulation that came into force in May 2023 puts the spotlight on one type of owner. This is how the term 'large tenant' came about, an attempt to stereotype owners with several properties. As if it were the great enemy, the Government states that anyone who appears as the owner of more than 10 urban properties, properties that do not include garages and storage rooms, or who has a construction area of more than 1,500 square meters for residential use, will be called a 'large holder'. The denomination does not stop there, but extends the assumption to any person who has 5 properties within the same 'stressed area'.
What is a tensioned zone
For more than half a year, the Executive has been trying to put a stop to a completely free system in which supply and demand are adjusted and in which the market situation does not understand rules or public controls. This is how forceful the sector has been showing itself since May. The influence, for the time being, of the law is helping the market to generate its own system that is circumventing any attempt at public interference. The result is an almost uncontrolled rise in rental prices. It is in this context that one must understand why the Government insists on one of the most outstanding measures of the new Housing Law: the 'stressed areas'. This is the term chosen to indicate those areas in which it is considered that there is a lack of supply and excess demand for rental apartments. In other words, locations in which the interest in renting a home exceeds the number of houses available for rent.
What are the best areas to rent apartments in Valencia, Alicante and Castellón?
Given the name in the Law, the concern arises as to who and how it is decreed that an area is declared a 'tensioned zone'. Who determines the 'tensioned zones' in each locality: Government, autonomous community or city council? The Executive is the one who has published the regulation and who opens the possibility that these locations are indicated, but the final decision depends on the administrations closest to the citizen. Currently only the autonomous community of Catalonia has decreed a total of 140 areas as a 'stressed zone' for rental housing. No other regional government has joined the central government's plan. So in Valencia, Alicante and Castellón there are, as of today, no locations catalogued in a special way due to the complexity of finding rental housing.
How to download the Rental Price Reference Informative Certificate for Rental Prices
A new aspect of the Housing Law, the reference index, is expected to be published in the Official State Gazette between March 12 and 13. As we have already mentioned, the norm has not served to sustain housing rental prices. Quite the contrary. They are increasingly higher, in line with the increases in the CPI, as well as other day-to-day expenses of the Spanish population. The website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda already has a consultation tool that can be useful for a regular owner and that can become a headache for the so-called 'big tenants'. Therein lies the key to this tool.
Apparently the search engine looks like a consultation page in which to have a minimum and a maximum price at which the property in question 'should' be rented according to various characteristics of the property. The website has official data, so that the search can be done even by cadastral reference or even be able to use the address of any property. On this website it is possible to add or remove aspects of the property in question, such as whether it has a parking space, if it is furnished or if the property has several common areas. At the bottom of the page there is a window in which the minimum and maximum figures vary for each piece of information provided. How to download the informative rental price reference certificate is quite simple: it is prominently displayed on the same web page.
The key to this document is that these amounts can be a challenge for the 'big tenants', since the issue of the new change in the Housing Law is that on that range is the one that, on certain occasions, oscillates the rental price of a house. In other words, the Government will impose the minimum and maximum rent for a dwelling. This will not be generalized from the second half of March, since the Executive indicates that only those new contracts of large tenants and apartments that have not been rented before in stressed areas during the last five years will be linked to these reference limits. In other words, the new rental contract made by a 'large tenant' must have a price that is set between the lower reference price of the previous agreement and the higher value of the new price index.