Housing rights. Vignette of 16/01/2026 in CTXT
Translation of the cartoon: "Half a century cementing the right to housing with speculation"
Yet another measure and yet again without any impact on speculation, which is one of the keys to the chronic housing price problem.
Pedro Sánchez announced three new measures for the rental market, which aim to recognise tax incentives for landlords who do not raise rent and which are supposed to impose "strict" conditions for temporary and room rentals. So here we go, we're not just talking about houses, we're already going for cubicles.
Although the details are yet to be finalised, as well as the date of entry into force of the measures, it is already possible to calculate the reward, in the form of a tax rebate, for freezing the rent: a saving of around 1500 euros for landlords.
Of these measures, of which neither the specific details nor the date of their entry into force are yet known (the intention is to approve the decree law in "the next few weeks"), it is already known that they will only affect contracts that have to be renewed and will benefit high-income landlords the most. The 100% IRPF rebate for not raising rents will save landlords almost 1,500 euros.
These are the three announced measures of this Royal Decree-Law that presented, assuring that they will "tackle speculation, fraud and abuse" in the rental market.
- Limits on the price of room rentals.
- 100% IRPF rebate for landlords who renew contracts without raising the price.
- Conditions for seasonal or short term rentals.
I can imagine these meetings to come up with supposedly "comprehensive" make-up solutions to the perennial housing problem with three or four rentier politicians raising their hands at every proposal to ask over and over again what about the landlords?
And you will say, but, man, what do you care if the landlords win if they assure us that this way "we all win". Well, if you really think like that, you should know that you have fallen into the trap that perpetuates the same old thing. They will always earn more and you will not. Hopefully you will pay the same as before. Which in the vast majority of cases is already a robbery. Moreover, it will not force the landlords to do anything, they will continue to be the ones who define the figures at which "the market" will move.
With rents at record highs and with clear signs that the rises are not going to be stopped, nobody dares to go off script, but the press offices are already making sure that the headline looks good. Rents will not rise or will slow down, they say. I invite you to come back to this text after a reasonable period of time following the application of these measures.
No government has gone beyond applying temporary patches and/or cosmetic measures, redefining the usual aid or distributing it in different ways with identical results, or ending up benefiting large landlords, banks and vulture funds. The construction of public housing is another election promise that is rewritten time and time again on a dead letter.
If you live in a village in Extremadura, Andalusia or wherever, you should be delighted that some public housing is being announced in Madrid, such as the Campamento Project, which has been stalled since 1989. A sign that maybe in another 37 years they will build some in your area.
I laugh at this "fight" against speculation when they never put their foot down to stop rent prices, or anything related to housing. And of making housing a real universal right (on paper it is also mentioned in passing in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), I don't even mention it.
The right to rent and to perpetuate "the market" based on speculation that keeps pushing prices up are always above this nonsense of the right to housing (cleverly written with ambiguity in article 47 of the Constitution).
"All Spaniards have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing. The public authorities shall promote the necessary conditions and establish the relevant rules to make this right effective, regulating land use in accordance with the general interest in order to prevent speculation. The community shall participate in the capital gains generated by the urban development actions of the public authorities.
Thus, what must be interpreted, and what the misleading article 47 actually says, is that nobody can deny you the right to buy or rent a decent home at the absurd price set by speculators.
