Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

A report on the impact of Autonomous Regional Act 11/2020 puts the drop in rent prices in the city at 3% and shows that an average of 15.3 rental contracts per 1,000 inhabitants were signed every week under this regime, representing 31.1% than the previous one. The volume of rental contracts actually surpassed the figure for the six months prior to the pandemic breaking out.

The figures show a contrast with a group of municipalities in the same area which were not subject to the act but are also covered by the report. In the same period, rental prices in these municipalities did not recede and instead rose by 4.1%. In the municipalities where rental prices were regulated, the drop in prices reached 7% in the first few months.

In terms of public housing, in the municipalities not subject to regulation between September 2019 (a year before the act came into force) and March 2022 (a year and a half after it came into force), some 6% more contracts per 1,000 inhabitants were signed, represent 0.9% more than the previous year. The figures represent less than half, and a third, respectively, of those for Barcelona (15.3% and 31.1%).

The regulation is no longer in force in the original format approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, as the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled various precepts null in March 2022, including the mechanism for controlling established rents, arguing that it impinged on state powers.

The report was commissioned municipally and compiled by the Metropolitan Housing Observatory. It can be found here.