The Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Agenda, David Lucas, has defended this Wednesday the declaration of stressed residential market areas as an “effective tool” to curb the escalation of rental prices and facilitate access to decent housing. During his speech at the opening of the International Congress ‘House Action. Resilient cities to stressed residential markets’, held in San Sebastian, Lucas has described as “illogical” that some autonomous communities governed by the PP refuse to apply these measures, “when they benefit the general population with adequate housing and reasonable prices.
The Secretary of State stressed that the declaration of stressed areas “is not limited to rent control”, but obliges all the administrations involved to design plans to increase the supply of housing, facilitate affordable rents and strengthen institutional coordination. “Housing is a right, and without a decent roof over our heads, the welfare state is incomplete,” he warned.
The Housing Law as a common framework
Lucas recalled that the Government is tackling the problem through new legislative frameworks, such as the Housing Law or the Architecture Quality Law, with which it intends to guarantee the right set forth in article 47 of the Constitution while respecting the autonomous and municipal competences. These regulations, together with rehabilitation policies and agreements with communities and municipalities, are part of the state strategy to strengthen the residential supply.
The Secretary of State also highlighted the budget increase contemplated in the State Housing Plan 2026-2030, from 1,700 million to 7,000 million euros, aimed at increasing the supply of housing, promoting renovations and responding to groups with difficulties, especially young people and vulnerable families.
More public housing, private-public collaboration and control of tourist rentals
Lucas stressed the importance of modernizing construction processes and mentioned the Perte de la industrialización de la construcción and the future Empresa Pública de Vivienda del Estado, which already manages 40,000 homes from Sareb and more than 2,500 plots of land.
The Secretary of State has also warned of the need to avoid the leakage of housing to the tourist market or seasonal rental, sometimes used as a “fraudulent subterfuge” to avoid permanent residential rental contracts. “We are promoting more housing, but we cannot allow the effort to be neutralized because housing is diverted to tourist use,” he insisted.
The effects of price controls: the Barcelona example
Regarding the stressed areas, Lucas defended their effectiveness and denied that price controls have reduced the supply of rental housing. As an example, he cited the case of Barcelona, where after a year of application “prices have fallen, supply has not been reduced and contracts have stabilized”.
The Ministry is currently working with the Provincial Councils of Araba and Bizkaia, following the adaptation carried out by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the results of which Lucas has described as “excellent”.
Criticism of communities that refuse to apply the measure
The Secretary of State regretted the lack of political will in some autonomous communities to adopt these tools, despite the fact that “they would benefit thousands of tenants and landlords”. He thanked, on the other hand, the impulse of autonomous governments and city councils that have decided to advance in this line, mentioning especially that of A Coruña, the first to apply tensioned zones in a community governed by the PP.
On the other hand, he criticized the position of the Community of Madrid, where prices have risen more than in any other territory: “Far from doing anything to correct the situation, the policies are going in the opposite direction”.
