Santiago Thomás de Carranza, managing partner of the firm, analyzed the effects of the new housing laws in Spain during his speech at the 6th Idealista Real Estate Congress. Held at the Teatro Real, the meeting was attended by more than 1,000 clients of the real estate platform.
In his speech, Thomás de Carranza emphasized the social impact of the housing problem and the need to address structural reforms from a “technical and not ideological approach”. In addition, he stressed that “the difficulty of access to housing is directly affecting the middle classes and the most vulnerable groups, forcing thousands of families to leave urban centers and opt for smaller and more distant homes”. In this context, he warned: “If we do not manage to offer decent housing to the middle class, democracy will disappear”.
The expert has described as “ineffective” the measures adopted in recent years regarding housing and describes the current scenario as a “very complex” market, marked by a historical imbalance between supply and demand. In this regard, he recalled that Spain will reach 49.5 million inhabitants this year and that, according to the Bank of Spain, there is a deficit of approximately 700,000 homes, while the rate of construction is around 100,000 units per year, creating a scenario of high tension.
Another focus of his speech was the lack of legal certainty in the rental market. Thomás de Carranza pointed out that current policies “are protecting squatting and placing burdens on owners”, adding that “public authorities are passing on current needs to homeowners”. In his opinion, “this approach erodes the confidence of homeowners and ends up having repercussions in higher prices and greater access requirements”.
Along these lines, he defended the need to implement measures that clearly reject squatting and reinforce the protection of property rights, with the aim of recovering security and predictability in the market. “The higher the risk of non-payment, the higher the prices and requirements; this is how markets work”, he remarked.
During his speech, the lawyer also recalled that the rate of effort in both rental and purchase already exceeds the 30% recommended by experts, and that in large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Valencia is above 40%. For this reason, he urged political leaders to “put aside their ideology, sit down with experts in the sector and carry out a great State Pact for housing, because it is as important as health or education”.
Thomás de Carranza mentioned the Catalan model as an example of the adverse effects of interventionist policies. In his opinion, the limitation of prices has not solved the problem and has caused a drop in supply. He recalled that, while in Spain there are more than 110 people interested in each rental property, in Barcelona the figure rises to 350. In addition, he pointed out that the declaration of more than 200 municipalities as stressed areas has pushed many owners towards modalities such as seasonal or room rentals.
The managing partner of the Firm also pointed out that there is something that has changed, referring to social tolerance towards squatting. In reference to the extension of the “social shield”, which paralyzes evictions until December 31, 2026, he highlighted as a positive point the fact that it seeks to alleviate the burden borne by small landlords and stressed that “landlords cannot carry the social needs and responsibilities of the State”.
As lines of action, Thomás de Carranza is committed to decisively increasing the public housing stock -which in Spain barely reaches 3% of the total-, encouraging public-private collaboration, freeing up land and speeding up urban development procedures. “We must protect homeowners, encourage private collaboration, free up land and, especially, speed up the endless urban development procedures”, he concluded.
