How will the Government stop the speculative buying of vulture funds and the evictions of vulnerable people

The Government's most recent decree-law on housing is currently, as of September 30, 2026, at the stage of pending ratification in the Congress of Deputies. It has already been approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), so it is in force, but it has not yet been endorsed by the Lower House. The Congress has scheduled an extraordinary and urgent plenary session for this Friday, October 2, in which it will decide whether to ratify or repeal it.

What has happened so far

According to parliamentary reports and information gathered by various media, the Government approved two royal decree-laws on housing this week, in a Council of Ministers meeting especially focused on responding to the housing access crisis and the social pressure generated after cases such as the eviction of the neighbor known as Maricarmen. After their approval by the Council, the texts were sent to the Official State Gazette, where they were published today, which implies that:

• The decree-laws are already in force since their publication in the BOE.
• Nevertheless, their final validity depends on the Congress, which must decide within a maximum period of 30 days.

This scheme is the usual one for any royal decree-law: it is issued for reasons of extraordinary and urgent necessity, comes into immediate effect, but needs to be ratified or repealed by the Congress within that period, according to Article 86 of the Constitution. The Government Presidency's own website explains this mechanism for all decree-laws, emphasizing that the Congress can also agree to process it as a bill, opening a full parliamentary process with amendments and debate in committee and plenary.

Current stage: pending ratification

In the specific case of the recent housing decree-law, the situation can be summarized as follows:

• Approved by the Council of Ministers and publicly announced.
• Published in the BOE, so it is already being applied.
• Under consideration by the Congress, awaiting the ratification debate.
• Extraordinary plenary session scheduled for this Friday, where the two housing decrees will be voted on separately, as explained by both parliamentary sources and specialized media such as Demócrata and agencies like EFE.

In other words, we are at the key stage where the Congress must decide whether to endorse the regulation or reject it. Politically, the Government is negotiating support against the clock, in a context where there have already been recent precedents of housing decrees that did not pass ratification.

Next steps if the decree-law is ratified

If the decree-law obtains a simple majority of favorable votes in the extraordinary plenary, it will be considered ratified. From there, two scenarios arise:

• Only ratification: the decree-law becomes final as a norm with the force of law, without further parliamentary processing. It would remain in force as approved by the Government.
• Ratification and processing as a bill: the plenary agreement itself may include that the text be processed as a bill, usually by the urgent procedure. In that case:
  • It is sent to the competent committee (likely Housing and Urban Agenda).
  • A period for amendments by parliamentary groups is opened, which the Congress may extend.
  • A working group is appointed to prepare a report incorporating amendments.
  • The committee debates and approves a report.
  • That report is submitted to the Congress Plenary, unless the committee has full legislative competence.
  • The text approved in Congress goes to the Senate, which may introduce amendments or issue a veto.
  • If there are changes or a Senate veto, the Congress has the final say: it can accept or reject the amendments and, if applicable, override the veto with the required majorities.
  • Finally, the law is sent for promulgation and publication in the BOE.

What happens if the decree-law is not approved

If the Congress rejects ratification, the decree-law lapses and loses its validity. The effects produced up to that moment are analyzed case by case, but generally, the norm ceases to apply. In that scenario, the Government would only have alternative routes:

• Present an ordinary bill with similar content, accepting a longer processing time.
• Attempt a new modified decree-law, if it considers that the conditions of urgency recur and achieves a more solid political agreement.

In summary: the housing decree-law is currently in force but politically at a decisive stage, awaiting the ratification plenary. The “final approval” in parliamentary terms depends on that Friday vote and, if applicable, on whether the Chamber wants to open a subsequent processing as a bill to adjust or expand its content.

According to current legislation, the minister responsible for housing in Spain heads the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, which is the department of the General State Administration competent in housing, urban agenda, building quality, and land. Its essential mission is to propose and execute the Government's policy in these areas, within the constitutional framework and the distribution of competencies with the autonomous communities.

The starting point is Royal Decree 829/2023, of November 20, which restructures ministerial departments. It creates the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda and establishes that this department is responsible for “the proposal and execution of the Government's policy in housing, Urban Agenda, building quality, and land.” Subsequently, Royal Decree 208/2024, of February 27, develops the basic organizational structure of the ministry and specifies the powers of each internal body.

Material areas of competence

Based on these royal decrees and Law 12/2023, of May 24, on the right to housing, it can be summarized that the minister is politically responsible for:

• The state housing policy as a whole: access to housing, affordable housing, social housing, and public housing stock.
• The Urban Agenda and sustainable urban development policies, in connection with the 2030 Agenda and international urban agendas.
• The quality, innovation, and sustainability of building, including rehabilitation, regeneration, and urban renewal, as well as architecture and its dissemination.
• Land as it affects state housing policy, particularly the mobilization of public land and public properties for affordable housing (for example, through SEPES or the future state housing entity).
• The design and monitoring of major state housing plans and aid programs, usually executed through agreements with autonomous communities.

Law 12/2023 reinforces this role by assigning the housing department the coordination and promotion of state initiatives related to housing, rehabilitation, and urban regeneration, always respecting autonomous competencies. The Constitutional Court has confirmed that the State can set the “bases” and basic equality conditions in this matter.

Specific functions of the minister

On this material basis, the structural royal decrees and general legislation on the Government and public sector determine a set of typical functions of the ministry head:

• Political direction of the department: sets priorities and strategic lines of housing, urban agenda, architecture, and land policy, and is politically accountable before the Government and the General Courts.
• Normative proposal: promotes before the Council of Ministers bills and royal decrees within their scope (for example, developments of the Housing Law or regulations on public housing stock, affordable rent, rehabilitation, etc.).
• Execute the Council of Ministers' decisions on housing, including agreements on the transfer and management of public properties intended for affordable or social housing.
• Direction of senior and managerial bodies of the ministry: particularly the State Secretariat for Housing and Urban Agenda, the Undersecretariat, and the general directorates (Housing and Land; Urban Agenda and Architecture, etc.), which carry out ordinary management.
• Inter-administrative coordination: leads the ministry's relationship with autonomous communities and local entities on housing (for example, through sectoral conferences and agreements for state housing plans).
• Institutional representation: represents the ministry in the Council of Ministers, in Government collegiate bodies, and, when appropriate, in European and international forums on housing and urban policy.
• High-level budget management: presents and defends the department's budget needs and authorizes, within public finance regulations, major spending commitments linked to housing and rehabilitation policies, delegating ordinary management to other bodies.
• Promotion and supervision of dependent entities of the ministry (such as housing entities or attached public companies), ensuring their actions align with state housing and land policy.

Limits and territorial fit

Although the minister has a central role in defining state policy, their competencies are exercised within the limits set by the Constitution and Law 12/2023. Autonomous communities retain primary competence over land planning, urbanism, and much of the direct management of housing. Therefore, the ministry mainly acts by establishing common bases, coordinating, financing, and evaluating, not by replacing autonomous and local action.

In summary, the head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda exercises the political and strategic direction of housing, urban agenda, building, and land policy at the state level, promotes legislation and state plans, and leads coordination with other administrations and stakeholders to guarantee, within their competencies, the right to decent and adequate housing recognized by the Constitution.

In the Spanish legal system, there is currently no single “license” or state statute that makes an entity a social housing developer. It is rather a combination of several frameworks: the state housing law, land legislation, and state aid programs, on which the autonomous communities develop additional requirements.

1. Basic state framework

The Law 12/2023, of May 24, on the right to housing sets the general architecture:

• It distinguishes two main types of protected housing: social housing and limited price housing.
• It defines the social housing stock as housing on publicly owned land intended for rental or temporary tenure for households with greater access difficulties.
• It foresees that social housing and public dotational housing may be managed:
  • by public administrations or their dependent entities,
  • by non-profit entities with social purposes linked to housing,
  • or through public-private collaboration formulas compatible with the social nature of such housing.
• It introduces the figure of incentivized affordable housing: privately owned housing (including third sector and social economy entities) whose owners receive urban or fiscal benefits from the Administration in exchange for allocating it to rental or temporary tenure at reduced prices, with use, duration, and price limits set by the Administration.
• It expressly recognizes the existence of social housing stocks of third sector entities, complementary to the public stock, and mentions social housing developers among the agents whose participation should be encouraged in housing policies.

The Royal Legislative Decree 7/2015, Revised Text of the Land and Urban Rehabilitation Law, on the other hand, sets the state land bases: minimum land reservations for publicly protected housing and the principle that when planning or land origin imposes a protected housing destination, that condition must be maintained stably.

The state housing plans and social housing aid programs (Royal Decree 106/2018, on the 2018-2021 Plan, and Royal Decree 853/2021, on rehabilitation and social housing aid programs of the Recovery Plan) do not create a new legal category of “social developer,” but they do establish who can be beneficiaries of aid to create social or limited price rental housing stock and under what conditions (destination, term, and rent limits).

2. Minimum legal requirements at the state level

From these texts, it can be summarized what state law minimally requires for an entity to act as a social or protected housing developer:

• 1) Appropriate legal personality
  The following can promote or manage social housing:
  • Public administrations and their instrumental or dependent entities (organisms, public companies, consortia, etc.).
  • Non-profit entities whose social purposes are linked to housing (foundations, associations, third sector social action entities), especially in the social housing stock and the third sector housing and accommodation stock provided in Law 12/2023.
  • Private entities (including social economy entities) that accept the conditions of incentivized affordable housing or state aid programs (destination to social or limited price rental, rent limits, etc.).
• 2) Social purposes and profit limits
  Law 12/2023 expressly links the management of social housing and third sector stocks to non-profit entities with social purposes related to housing. In the case of incentivized affordable housing, profit motive may exist, but:
  • the business margin is conditioned by maximum rent prices and other limitations set by the Administration,
  • public benefits (urban, fiscal, subsidies) are subordinated to compliance with those conditions.
• 3) Commitment to destination, regime, and duration
  The state framework requires the developer entity to assume:
  • the exclusive destination of the housing to social rental, use transfer, or other temporary tenure forms for target groups (households with access difficulties, vulnerable groups, etc.);
  • subjection to price limitations (social housing, limited price housing, incentivized affordable housing);
  • generally, the impossibility of declassifying protected housing except in specific cases and with a minimum qualification period of 30 years when public aid has been granted or the land is reserved for public protection, as detailed in Law 12/2023.
• 4) Formal relationship with the Administration and submission to control
  Social housing promotion is usually supported by:
  • surface rights, concessions, or other legal transactions on public land,
  • or by being a beneficiary of aid programs for social rental and social housing construction (state plans).
  In all cases, the entity must accept:
  • tenant/household selection criteria set by the Administrations,
  • information and transparency obligations about the managed stock,
  • and monitoring mechanisms and, if applicable, aid reimbursement if destination and price commitments are breached.

3. Autonomous community margin to tighten requirements

Housing is primarily a competence of the autonomous communities, and Law 12/2023 is declared basic in many aspects but leaves wide room to specify and reinforce conditions. Usually, the autonomous communities:

• create regional registries of social housing developers or collaborating entities, with additional technical and economic solvency requirements;
• may require certain social housing programs to be promoted exclusively by non-profit entities or housing cooperatives;
• set minimum percentages of housing destined for social rental within a development;
• extend protection periods (beyond the minimum 30 years) or establish, de facto, permanent qualifications on reserved lands;
• regulate in more detail the allocation criteria and social support and intervention obligations.

In practice, an entity wishing to be recognized as a social housing developer must therefore meet the state standards (housing typology, social destination, price and duration limits) and the specific requirements established by the autonomous community where it operates, especially regarding registration, legal form, and relationship with the Administration.