The extension of rental contracts is once again at the center of the debate about housing in Spain. PSOE and Sumar have reached an agreement to include in a new royal decree-law an extraordinary extension of up to two years for certain contracts of habitual housing rental, with the aim of preventing millions of tenants from having to face a renewal with prices much higher than the current ones.
However, the measure is still not in effect. The Government decided to postpone the approval of the new housing decree until after the summer due to the lack of sufficient parliamentary support and the differences between the parties that support the Executive. Therefore, tenants cannot currently request this new extension based solely on the announced political agreement.
The proposal known so far would allow maintaining for a maximum of two additional years certain contracts that expire before June 30, 2028, preserving their essential conditions and preventing the owner from taking advantage of the expiration to impose a significant rent increase through a new contract. The definitive content will depend, however, on the text approved by the Council of Ministers.
What is the extraordinary rental extension
The extraordinary rental extension is a mechanism that would allow the tenant to continue in their home once the mandatory duration or the tacit extension provided for in the Urban Leasing Law has expired.
The measure would not mean converting the contract into indefinite. Its objective would be to temporarily extend the duration of the lease for a maximum of two years, presumably through annual periods, to provide stability to those facing the expiration of their contract in a market with higher rents.
During that extension, the essential conditions of the contract, including the current rent and the legally permitted updates, would generally be maintained. The owner could not use the expiration as a way to force the tenant to immediately sign a new contract at a significantly higher price.
The design largely reproduces the mechanism included in Royal Decree-law 8/2026, approved in March, although the new agreement extends the time horizon of the potentially affected contracts until mid-2028.
What contracts could benefit
The proposal is mainly aimed at rental contracts for habitual housing subject to the Urban Leasing Law that reach the end of their mandatory or tacit extension period before the deadline set by the future decree.
According to the agreement announced by PSOE and Sumar, the new mechanism would cover leases that expire before June 30, 2028, although it will be necessary to wait for the BOE to know the initial application date, the way to request the extension, and the exact requirements.
The main beneficiaries would be tenants who reside permanently in the housing and who, without this measure, would have to negotiate a new contract in a market where the current rent may be considerably higher than that signed five or seven years ago.
The estimate circulated during the negotiation points out that the so-called reinforced extension could benefit around four million people, although this is a political forecast and not a definitive record of beneficiaries. The actual figure will depend on the contracts ultimately included and how many tenants apply to benefit from the measure.
Which rentals would be excluded
The measure is not initially intended for any rental modality. Its main scope would be habitual housing contracts, so it is likely that tourist rentals, leases for purposes other than housing, and a good part of seasonal contracts would be excluded.
The future decree also aims to address the regulation of temporary and room rentals, but through specific rules aimed at preventing these figures from being used to evade the protections of residential contracts. The Government has proposed that the sum of the rents for the rooms cannot exceed the rent applicable to the entire housing.
Therefore, the possible extension of a habitual housing contract should not be confused with the measures being negotiated to limit the fraudulent use of seasonal or room rentals.
The tenant would have to request the extension
The precedent approved in March established that the extension was not applied ex officio in all cases, but upon request of the tenant. Once correctly submitted, the owner was obliged to accept it unless one of the legally provided exceptions occurred.
The new text could maintain this system, although the final wording is still unknown. Until the decree is approved and published, it cannot be determined with certainty whether the application must be made with a specific advance notice, in writing, or through some specific procedure.
For this reason, tenants whose contract is about to expire must continue to pay attention to the dates and communications provided in their current contract. The political announcement does not suspend the deadlines established in the Urban Leasing Law by itself.
What exceptions could the owner invoke
The previous regulation allowed for the exclusion of the extension in certain cases where the landlord needed to recover the property to allocate it to their own permanent residence or that of family members, as long as the conditions established in the Urban Leasing Law were met.
The new decree could retain a similar exception to protect the rights of small property owners who need to occupy the property. However, it is not yet possible to affirm what all the causes of exclusion will be, because the final draft has not been published.
The applicable consequences must also be specified when the owner and tenant voluntarily agree to a new contract with different conditions.
The previous measure was in effect for several weeks
The Government already attempted to approve an extraordinary extension through the Royal Decree-Law 8/2026, of March 20. That regulation allowed for the extension of habitual residence contracts whose mandatory or tacit extension ended before December 31, 2027, for a maximum of two years.
The decree came into effect on March 22, 2026, one day after its publication in the BOE. However, since it was a royal decree-law, it had to be validated by Congress within the constitutional period of 30 days.
Congress rejected the validation on April 28, so the regulation was repealed and could no longer be applied to new applications. The parliamentary rejection explains why the Government is negotiating support before approving a new version.
What happens with the extensions requested while the decree was in effect
One of the most delicate legal issues affects tenants who requested the extension during the weeks in which the previous decree was in effect.
The repeal of a royal decree-law does not usually automatically erase all the legal situations consolidated during its validity. However, the lack of a sufficiently clear transitional regulation caused discrepancies among experts regarding the effect of the repeal on the extensions requested or already accepted.
Specific cases may depend on the expiration date of the contract, when the request was communicated, the response of the owner, and whether the extension had effects before Congress repealed the norm.
What is needed for the new extension to come into effect
The first pending step is the approval of the new royal decree-law on housing by the Council of Ministers. The Government had planned to approve it before the summer break, but decided to postpone it to have more time to finalize a parliamentary agreement.
After that, it must be published in the Official State Gazette. Unless the text itself provides a different date, a royal decree-law can come into effect immediately or the day after its publication.
From that moment on, Congress will have a maximum of 30 days to decide whether to validate or repeal it. This means that the extension could be applied provisionally before the vote, but its continuity would depend on the support of the Lower House.
The precedent from April shows that publication in the BOE does not guarantee the permanence of the measure by itself. To avoid a new repeal, the Executive needs to ensure a sufficient majority before bringing the decree to the Council of Ministers.
Why the Government has postponed the housing decree
The differences do not only affect the extension of contracts. The future package also includes the regulation of temporary and room rentals, tax changes for tourist apartments, measures to protect vulnerable households, and possible tax incentives for owners.
Junts, Podemos, and the PNV have raised different objections regarding the tax measures, the reform of the Land Law, autonomous competencies, the occupation of homes, and the treatment of small property owners. This diversity of positions makes it difficult to gather a stable parliamentary majority.
The Government has chosen to continue negotiations after the summer instead of approving a decree without guarantees of passing the validation.
When the rental extension could be approved
The Executive has placed the resumption of negotiations and the possible approval of the decree after the summer, but there is currently no official date set for the Council of Ministers.
Until the regulation is published in the BOE, no tenant can automatically consider the right to remain two more years in the housing due to this new proposal.
The definitive date, the included contracts, the exceptions, and the application procedure must be verified in the legal text. Meanwhile, the ordinary rules of duration and extension established in the Urban Leasing Law remain in effect.