Spain announces new measures to tackle housing crisis

Spain’s leftist government unveiled new measures to tackle the country’s long-running housing crisis on Monday, targeting a building boom and tax hikes on the owners of tourist rentals.

The 12 announcements aim to offer more social housing, improve regulation and provide more support to renters, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told an economic forum in Madrid.

Supply is lagging far behind demand in the sector that consistently ranks among top concerns in the European country, scarred by a market bust that accompanied the 2008 global financial crisis.

New homes put on the market have trickled to around 90,000 per year as the country records 300,000 new households, Sanchez said.

A tourist in Toledo, Spain, where tax hikes on the owners of tourist rentals have been proposed. Photo / NZME

The premier announced the transfer of two million square metres of land to a newly created public company to construct “thousands and thousands” of affordable social housing units.

Social housing makes up only 2.5% of Spain’s total stock, whereas in EU peers France and the Netherlands it is 14% and 34% respectively, Sanchez said.

The premier announced higher taxes and tighter regulation for tourist apartments, often blamed for reducing the availability of residential properties and causing rents to spike in the world’s second most-visited country.

“It is not fair that those who own three, four, five apartments for short-term rental pay less tax than hotels,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez also promised a tax exemption for owners who rent their properties according to the official index, even in areas not declared under market tension.

His government passed a flagship housing law in 2023 aiming to boost the construction of social housing, cap rents in areas under the greatest market pressure and inflict penalties on owners who leave their properties unoccupied.

But rents have continued to climb, increasing by 11% in 2024 according to real estate portal Idealista.

© Agence France-Presse