Catalan parliament appeals Spain's new housing law

The Catalan parliament formally appealed Spain's new housing law with a complaint that was lodged in Spain's Constitutional Court on Tuesday.

This comes only days after pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, Junts per Catalunya, and CUP voted in the chamber to challenge the regulation for allegedly overstepping its authority. 

The parties argue that only the Catalan government is in charge of "the planning, arrangement, management, inspection, and control of housing in accordance with social needs and territorial balance."

Esquerra, however, voted in favor of the law alongside Spain's left-wing minority coalition government in Congress last April. 

The long journey for the housing law in Catalonia

In September 2020, the Catalan parliament passed a law regulating the rent prices which would affect 60 cities and towns with over 20,000 inhabitants with "tense housing markets."

The law established that in the areas where affordable housing is scarce, rents would be determined by the Catalan Housing Agency's Average Price Index

But in March 2022, Spain's Constitutional Court annulled most of that law because "it is the state that sets the obligatory contractual standards," it explained in a press release.

According to the magistrates, Catalonia had overstepped its powers related to housing.

More than a year later, in April 2023, Spain passed its own housing law to cap rent increases at 3% starting in 2024, instead of according to inflation. The law tackled other housing problems like rental fees and expenses, as well as evictions.