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The Ministry of Infrastructure has created the rental map in order to detect which incentives are necessary.

The Government will carry out a statistic of rentals in Spain, something like a rental map. The aim: to get to know better the problems within the sector, so as to find solutions. The rental has always been the outcast of the real estate sector, in a country with a majority of owners. And in spite of the proliferation of statistics on housing, there is not one that assesses officially the reality of the rentals.

It will be a global inventory, that will include the number of rentals and their prices- and not only the percentage variation, as done by the NIS until now-, as well as their locations (where there are more or less rentals), according to the consulted financial sources. The statistics on empty properties and therefore susceptible to be rented will also be demanded from the NIS.

All this in collaboration with the regional governments, which are the ones competent on real estate matters, and which will have to defray all necessary bureaucratic costs.  Agreements will be signed and working groups will be created by the Government and the regions, according to sources within the Ministry.

This great statistic is created by the Rental Law, which comes into force today, after being published yesterday in the state official gazette.

In its first additional ruling it is stated that “with the intention of defining, proposing and executing the Government policy on access to properties”, the Ministry of Infrastructure will be able to demand “information on the location of properties, on rental agreements (…), from the administrative registries of agreements and deposits from the regional governments and the National Council of Notaries Public”.

All this is required to get a real picture of rentals and “get to know the market better”, so as to detect where there is more offer, where more demand of social housing, or in which areas the express evictions are working better as well as the new advantages for owners so that they put their properties for rent. “We would also like to check the influence of the new law”, they add from the Ministry.

Along with the new law, the Government has approved a new policy of subsidized housing, focused only on the social and rotating rental, with low prices – less than 400 Euros- and not on the acquisition.

The final objective of this new law is to reduce the gap between the rental and the ownership. Because Spain is still lagging behind in the percentage of people that rent instead of buying. Only 17% of Spaniards prefer it, opposite to the 83% that goes for ownership. In Germany, however, 46,8% goes for rental. In France, 38%. And in Switzerland, 55,7%. This close relationship from Spaniards to the construction business affects the labor mobility – and therefore the employment- as signaled frequently by the Bank of Spain.

Also, the Government will demand all statistic data stored by the IRS “derived from the access to tax benefits from tenants and landlords”. All this without violating the legislation on data protection.

Source: Expansión

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