Ministry Of Development: 22.2% Of Spaniards Rent Their Home

6 July 2017 – Eje Prime

“We are seeing a change in terms of the mentality of Spanish society with respect to the use of homes”, said the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing, Julio Gómez-Pomar. And that manifests itself in the form of a higher percentage of people living in rental homes: up to 22.2% of Spaniards now live as tenants (rather than owners), up by 5.2% compared to 2012.

That was one of the findings to emerge from the Congress of Deputies’ Commission for Development, when it unveiled the general outlines of the new State Housing Plan 2018-2021, which the Government wants to enter into force on 1 January 2018.

In terms of the rental market, Gómez-Pomar evaluated the impact of the new Urban Letting Act (LAU), approved by the Ministry of Development in 2013. “The LAU is accompanying this change in mentality”, he said.

On the other hand, he rejected the possible approval of measures that would oblige the owners of vacant homes to rent out their properties because “beyond the ideological controversy”, according to the number two at the Ministry of Development “there is a legal limitation, since the constitutional order establishes guarantees with respect to properties, their purpose and the use of them”.

To that end, he defended that “it is better to establish stimulus, incentive and security measures for the rental market to ensure that anyone who puts their home up for rent is not abused and decides not to invest their savings in buying a home again”.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake