Sánchez returns housing decrees to Parliament after calling an election

On October 6, Pedro Sánchez presented two new housing decrees, approved that day by the Council of Ministers, after Congress rejected their previous versions. The Government sent them to the Permanent Deputation, the body that can exercise parliamentary functions when the Cortes are dissolved, for it to decide whether to validate them.

The move came after Sánchez called a general election for November 29. In his appearance, the president linked the parliamentary defeat of the measures to the decision to call the election: he argued that citizens should be able to choose a different Parliament if the current one does not respond to one of their main concerns. He also defended the package, saying it retains the essence of the rejected proposals, although it includes changes.

Two decrees with different scopes

According to coverage by La Razón, El Mundo and Valencia Plaza, the package brings together 21 measures and is set out in two texts. The first contains most of the initiatives, while the second concerns the renewal of rental contracts. The measures are not identical to those Congress struck down, but the Executive did not detail all the changes during its appearance.

Among the measures described is a scheme administered by the Official Credit Institute (ICO) to provide interest-free loans of up to €50,000 for the purchase of a first home. Valencia Plaza puts the funding planned for this scheme at €10 billion and says it would be aimed at individuals and families with incomes but without enough savings to cover a mortgage deposit. The published information also mentions €400 million to promote the development of social housing and €280 million in guarantees linked to industrialised construction.

The package also includes tax incentives for small landlords who rent at affordable prices and measures concerning rental contracts. Among them, Valencia Plaza describes extensions of up to two years for certain contracts, limits on rent increases and information requirements in rental advertisements in areas where legal restrictions apply. It also reports changes relating to the protection of vulnerable households and to housing belonging to the General Treasury of Social Security, which would be assigned to Casa 47 to be made available to the public.

The Permanent Deputation: the next step

Unlike the Plenary, the Permanent Deputation continues to operate while the Cortes are dissolved. El Mundo reported that the body has 69 members and that the Government would have a narrow majority there together with its partners. It also noted that the timetable would allow the legal deadline to be reached before the vote. The decrees’ approval, therefore, was not guaranteed simply because the Council of Ministers had approved them again: it was for the Permanent Deputation to decide whether to validate them.

The Government defended the initiatives as necessary social measures. Sánchez said they were intended to make access to housing easier and reconcile the interests of tenants and small landlords. At the same time, he acknowledged that the decrees alone would not solve the problem and argued that more housing needed to be built, particularly public and affordable housing.

The reports interpreted the renewed legislative process as part of the pre-campaign political strategy, given that the announcement came after the election was called and Sánchez personally defended the measures. That interpretation belongs to the analysis in the coverage, not to an independently established purpose. In any case, the episode once again placed housing at the centre of the debate between the Government and parliamentary groups in the run-up to the election.