White smoke. Three years later, the Housing Law is unblocked after an agreement between the Government and its partners ERC and Bildu. In the Executive they had the conviction days ago that, finally, it was a matter of days to unravel the norm and that the only thing missing was the conformity of their Catalan and Basque partners. In this final stretch, the main leaders of all parties were involved, which denoted that it was in the final stretch, closing the fringes. In La Moncloa it was accelerated because there was interest in having it approved before the 28-M election campaign, since it allowed them to present important political ammunition for the elections. In fact, the forces involved assume that it will be in force before the campaign. “Deadlines are not going to be a problem.”

Optimism had settled among the coalition partners. Now there was the awareness that it was the definitive. In fact, and as this newspaper has reported, in the last hours what was being resolved was “leaving the focus to ERC and Bildu”. That is, allowing the governance partners, who have played a key role in the negotiation, and whose votes are vital to approve the regulation, who could capitalize on the announcement.. As of this Thursday, it was planned to be so. “Once again it is the left-wing sovereignist forces that make possible and achieve such an important social advance as this law implies,” boasted Oskar Matute, from Bildu.

Both formations, likewise, have exhibited muscle in the sense that they boast that they have managed to beat the pulse of the Government so that the law respects regional and local powers. According to what the nationalist formations have stated, “an enabling and secure legal framework is created so that the competent institutions in housing matters can deploy, develop and expand the necessary housing policies through their own capacities and tools”.

“One of the great battles in the negotiation has been that some want the entire State to do it. The minimum sovereignty makes it unthinkable for us to vote on a law in which the State decides on policies whose powers are of the caliber of housing and which belong to the communities,” said Pilar Vallugera, deputy of ERC.

These are the keys to the new housing law EL MUNDO Top of the rental price

And it has been ERC and Bildu, from the Congress of Deputies, who have presented the agreement and have made it profitable. All agreed and planned. From La Moncloa they downplay this staging, which they have accepted, wanting to value the agreement and not the forms.

One of the points that has caused friction between the government partners and with the governance partners has been the ceiling on rental prices.. Finally, the agreement reached establishes that the CPI is eliminated as a reference index for the annual update of the rent of the contracts. What is reflected is that during 2023 the 2% limit in force will be applied -a consequence of the anti-crisis plan approved by the Government-, while in 2024 it will be 3% and from now on a new index will be created in these terms, ” more stable and lower than the evolution of the CPI, which caps the increases in income for annual renewal”, picks up the text that ERC and Bildu have presented.

This index is neither determined nor has it been worked on.. The commitment is to create a working group that works on it. The only thing that is known is that it will be the INE, which depends on the Economy, which will define a new reference index.

Stressed areas: voluntary

Regarding stressed areas, it is left to the communities or town halls to request the declaration of stressed area, establishing two conditions for this, but only one of them must be met. Thus, the declaration of stressed areas will be declared when one of the two conditions established by the Law is met: that the average cost of the mortgage or rent plus basic expenses and supplies exceeds 30% of the average income of the homes, or that the purchase or rental price of the home has increased at least 3 points above the CPI in the five years prior to the declaration of a stressed area.

The difference between stressed and non-stressed areas lies, for example, in that when entering into a new contract, if it is not a stressed area, the parties will agree on the rental price; while if that price is in a stressed area, taking as a reference the last contract of the previous tenant, it can only go up 2% this year, 3% in 2024 or whatever the index that is created as of January 1, 2025 dictates.. In contract renewals, the limits in force will always prevail, whether or not you are in a stressed area.

What will not be obligatory will be the declaration of a stressed zone. This decision, which will be in the hands of the communities and town halls, which must submit a request to the Ministry of Transport, will be voluntary. And there is no mechanism that makes it mandatory. In fact, there are PP territories that on previous occasions have shown their refusal to apply the rule. And the circumstance could arise that the law was in force and the popular regions did not implement it. And before that, the Government could not do anything.

Moncloa accelerated the negotiation

The law will finally see the light because the machinery was activated for days. Pedro Sánchez had transferred the order: unblock the Housing Law in Congress. And those involved have gotten down to work. In the environment of the President of the Government, the conviction that it was going to be approved had been installed for days and they had no doubts that it would be before the municipal and regional elections of 28-M.

The determination of La Moncloa has been one of the keys to unblocking. Decide that it should come out yes or yes, entrusting this final part of the negotiation to the Ministry of Transport, with the participation of the Economy. They took the reins in the final part of the negotiation and intensified the negotiations with ERC and Bildu after Sánchez's order. That we were in the final stretch was indicated by the participation in them of the main leaders of each party. For example, Gabriel Rufián, on behalf of the Catalan republicans, has been very much on top in this final part.

The unblocking of the Housing Law supposes, on the one hand, a lever for the Government in the face of the electoral campaign, selling the first rule of democracy on housing, electoral ammunition in short; and on the other to unite the coalition, which is experiencing difficult times, with the serious crisis due to the reform of the law of only yes is yes as a backdrop. In fact, the approval in Congress of the Housing Law would cover the “noise” that will be generated again next week with the vote on the reform of the only yes is yes, which will once again show the division and clashes in the coalition.

The path of this norm began in October 2020 when Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias agreed to regulate the rent in four months and thus save the first Budgets of the coalition. Since then, the standard once again served as a bargaining chip for Public Accounts at the end of 2021; Two Ministers of Transport have passed, Iglesias left the Government… and the text continued, until now, without being validated in Congress.