Communities will not be able to apply the battery of tax rebates of the Housing Law if they do not declare stressed areas
The Draft state law for the right to housing that the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday emphasizes the need to curb the rise in rental prices in certain areas, especially in large cities, called stressed areas.
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A declaration of a stressed area that depends exclusively on the autonomous communities. So far, those headed by the PP, such as Madrid or Andalusia, have already advanced that they do not intend to make use of this figure, which will also force large holders - companies with more than 10 properties - to link rental prices to a benchmark, yet to be designed.
A statement that will be necessary to apply most of the tax deductions for small owners included in the text approved by the Government. That is, without a declaration of a stressed area, according to the definition provided by the Law, there will be no option for the citizens of these communities to have these tax incentives, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
Nor will they be able to add to these deductions if the communities define their own stressed areas - something they can do because they have powers - but they do so outside the new Law, which the Government estimates will be approved in the second half of 2022.
To be a stressed area, two requirements must be met: that the cost of the mortgage or rent exceeds 30% of the average income of households in that area; and that the price of houses has increased by more than 5%, with respect to the CPI of that Community.
It is in these areas that small owners are expected to put their houses up for rent, with the hook of the tax benefit. Specifically, the reduction in the net rental income of the habitual residence is modified, for new lease contracts, which can be up to 90%, for owners who reduce the rental price by 5% in a stressed area.
In addition, it allows a 75% discount for the small owner if it is rented to young people between 18 and 35 years old in these areas; or if the housing is transferred to the public administration, or to a third sector entity, under a public limited income housing program. And 60%, when the rented apartment has carried out rehabilitation and energy efficiency improvement works.
What remains to be designed is the price reference index to which the large holders will be subject and which will entail a rental record, coordinated with the autonomous communities and other state bodies and which will be launched 18 months after the approval of the the law.
The municipalities will have the promoters for the protected housing requirement
The draft bill includes that the new developments reserve a percentage for protected housing, 30% on urbanized land, and, of that percentage, half for rent. In return it is necessary to "articulate compensation mechanisms."
The objective, say the aforementioned sources, is "to provide legal certainty because, until now, there were no systematic compensation mechanisms." Barcelona, for example, requires a 30% reserve for promotions for social housing, but it does not compensate.
Ministry sources indicate that the Law includes this compensation because, in addition, the Constitutional Court ruling 16/2021 requires it. Some mechanisms that, they indicate, are common in the development of protected housing. Regarding whether Barcelona will have to change its legislation, as drafted in the Draft Law, it will have to compensate the promoters.
