MADRID, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Spain’s government on Tuesday approved two housing decrees whose rejection by parliament last week prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap election.
The measures, which include rent caps, a temporary ban on evictions and limits on corporate purchases of residential property, were “based on plain common sense”, Sanchez said in a press conference, arguing that opinion surveys showed the public was broadly in favour of intervention in the property market.
“They protect the most vulnerable and, in some way, begin to bring order to what is currently a deeply dysfunctional market that does not operate according to the logic of supply and demand because of rampant speculation,” he said.
Sanchez said on Monday he was bringing forward an election previously scheduled for 2027 because failing to garner enough support for his proposals to address a housing crisis made him realise he needed more seats in parliament.
Calling the election, on November 29, has allowed Sanchez to bring in the new rules with the support of a smaller caretaker body.
The measures will come into effect temporarily when the decree is published in the official state gazette but must then be sent for approval by the caretaker lawmakers who remain in place after parliament was dissolved, Sanchez said.
The standing body of 69 members, when including lower house speaker Francina Armengol from Sanchez’s Socialist Party, has a slim majority in favour of the measures, according to state broadcaster TVE.
A second decree proposing the automatic renewal of rental contracts would only come into effect if approved by the reduced legislature since the government did not have a majority to validate it, Sanchez said.
The attempted eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid triggered nationwide protests including calls for a general strike before the election, which Sanchez said his government would respect.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux, Victoria Waldersee and Mireia Merino; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Timothy Heritage and Alison Williams)
