On the 27th of May 2024, the agreement of the Permanent Provincial Council of the Parliament of Catalonia repealing Decree-Law 6/2024 on urgent measures with regards to housing (the «Decree-Law») was published in the Official Gazette of the Government de Catalunya (DOGC).
The Decree Law, in force since 26th April 2024, was passed by the Government of Catalonia in order to regulate seasonal rentals and sublets. These types of leases grew exponentially following the entry into force of Law 12/2023 of the 24th of May 2023 on the right to housing (the “Housing Law”), which established measures affecting rental contracts for main residences with regards to the duration, the setting and revision of rent, the increase of rent for improvements or the system of passing on costs. By not including leases for non-residential use in its scope, many property owners, in order to get around the restrictions imposed by the Housing Act, opted to rent out their properties through seasonal rentals, which allows much more flexibility in terms of establishing the contractual terms of the lease.
Faced with this situation, in order to curb the growth of seasonal rentals – which is especially crucial in the main cities in Catalonia –, the Catalan Government chose to regulate seasonal rentals and sublets with the Decree-Law, extending the measures established in the Housing Law to apply to seasonal rentals and sublets (on this issue, see our article: “NEW LIMITS ON SEASONAL RENTALS AND SUBLETS IN CATALONIA”). In accordance with the explanatory memorandum of the Decree-Law, seasonal rentals had been used fraudulently to avoid the application of state law, on the basis that the vast majority of seasonal rentals entered into since the entry into force of the Housing Act had been entered into with tenants who needed the property for use as their habitual residence.
As the validation of the Decree-Law has not been approved within a period of thirty days, as required by article 64.2 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, it has been repealed since the date of publication of the agreement of the Permanent Provincial Council in the DOGC.
Joan Lluís Rubio
Vilá Abogados
For more information, please contact:
31st of May 2024
