Calls have echoed from Barcelona asking for the Government to withdraw the “Draft Law on Measures for Promoting flexibility in the Rental Housing Market” because it will have a negative effect on tenants. The people feel, and voiced by Mr. Caritas that the new legislation has the sole purpose of "cleaning up real estate accounting" and this is why the government is promoting it.

On the opposite side of the table, Ana Pastor, Minister of State responsible for Development and Housing, believes that the new legislation in fact favours the tenants. However, the Minister has been met by stiff opposition.

Further criticism has come from the NGO of the Catholic Church who has expressed its "total disagreement and disapproval" of this legislative proposal announced by the central government and that it "posed a serious and unacceptable decline in policies to protect housing tenants in our country".

The issue has been compounded more by the fact of the economic strain that has been placed on Spain and Mr. Caritas expressed that with financial difficulties, tax accounting for real estate plus other legislations, the Government is better focused on trying to address the dramatic social problems that people are living in relation to housing rights. “This only aggravates the problem,” Mr. Caritas said.

The NGO of the Catholic Church have taken their request for change one step further, by asking for a law that provides a “social rent”, whereby tenants could rent (maximum 200 Euros per month) publicly owned homes that are held by financial institutions that have been taken over or helped by the state and that these rentals have a duration 10 years.

Currently there are 690,000 (120,000 in Catalonia) empty homes owned by banks.

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At the end of the first quarter, Spain had an unemployment rate of 5.7 million people (837,000 in Catalonia) of which 1.6 million are young people between 18 and 30 years (250,000 in Catalonia).

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Annually there is 78,000 foreclosures per year (14,000 in Catalonia), 58,000 evictions a year (7,000 in Catalonia).

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Of the housing stock, only 11% are bought by first time buyers (18% in Catalonia) as opposed to Western European countries who see this number rise between 30% and 35%.

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Spain has only 1.5% of social housing for rent opposed to the average of 18% by European countries.

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Since 2010, the state budgets have been reduced by 50% on its housing policy, going from 1,6 billion Euros to 800 million Euros in 2012.

Mr. Caritas believes the Government should rather promote a “possibility” between tenants and landlords to discuss rental updates, instead of applying an automatic CPI. Mr. Caritas goes on further, stating that the new legislation allows contracts that are less than 5 years to be easily null and void and the normal 5 year rental leases can be reduced to a term of 3 years if the landlord so wishes. Mr. Caritas believes that the new law now allows landlords to wait while the property market recovers before forcing current tenants to pay higher rent or leave for a better paying tenant. The eviction process has also been accelerated and the time to pay off the debt has been reduced.

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“The bill is only for the financial sector to help clear their balance sheets and to be able to rent properties over a short period of time, with minimum commitments and with every facility for evictions," Mr. Caritas said.

With the uncertainty in long term rental properties, many owners have turned to holiday rentals as the tourism industry remains strong in Spain, especially in Barcelona. Yes, the long term rentals situation is not stable at the moment, but tourist numbers are up for Catalonia and the holiday rental apartment demand is outstripping the supply.

With Barcelona property prices having come down slightly, now is the time to search for apartments in sought after locations that need some reform work done and turn them into holiday rentals. Knowing where to search and understanding the property buying process in Barcelona can be confusing, so seeking professional, unbiased help is essential and HomeSearch Barcelona is one such company.