The BOE only publishes one of the two royal decree laws on housing

After the publication of a royal decree-law in the BOE, the Constitution and the Congress Regulations establish a specific parliamentary procedure for its validation or repeal. The decisive body is always the Congress of Deputies; the Senate does not intervene in the validation (only if the text proceeds as an ordinary or organic bill).

Basic legal framework

The procedure is essentially based on:

• Article 86 of the Spanish Constitution, which regulates royal decree-laws: it requires that they be submitted to debate and a vote of validation or repeal by the Congress within a maximum period of 30 days from their enactment.
• The Regulations of the Congress of Deputies (approved in 1982 and reformed multiple times), which develop how plenary debates are organized, how the agenda is set, and the role of the Permanent Deputation regarding decree-laws when the Chamber is not in session or is dissolved.

1. Publication in the BOE and referral to Congress

The parliamentary procedure begins once the royal decree-law has been approved by the Government and published in the BOE. From that moment:

• The constitutional 30-day period starts counting for the Congress to submit it to debate and a vote of validation or repeal.
• The text is sent to Congress, where the Board classifies it and orders its publication in the Official Bulletin of the General Courts, Congress Section, for the deputies' knowledge and to include it in the agenda of a plenary session.

2. Setting the agenda and convening the Plenary

According to the Congress Regulations:

• The Presidency of the Congress, in agreement with the Board of Spokespersons, sets the agenda of the Plenary. The Government may request that the validation of a decree-law be given priority.
• If Congress is out of the ordinary session period or has been dissolved, the Permanent Deputation comes into play, to which the Regulations expressly attribute "all the powers that in relation to decree-laws" the Constitution grants to Congress. That is, it can debate and vote on the validation when the Chamber is not operational.

3. Validation debate

The validation debate in the Congress Plenary has its own features:

• It opens with a Government explanation (usually the minister in charge), who justifies the extraordinary and urgent necessity and the content of the decree-law, according to the requirements of article 86 of the Constitution.
• Followed by interventions from parliamentary groups, in the turns and times set by the Presidency, to take a position for or against validation.
• The debate is specific to the validation or repeal as a whole of the decree-law; the text is not yet discussed in amendable articles (that would correspond to the possible processing as a bill).

4. Voting and required majorities

After the debate, the vote proceeds:

• The validation of the royal decree-law is decided by simple majority, like an ordinary law: more votes in favor than against, excluding abstentions.
• If the result is favorable, Congress validates the decree-law. If the result is unfavorable, the decree-law is repealed, although the effects produced during its validity remain unless Congress itself or a subsequent norm provides otherwise.
• The validation or repeal agreement is subsequently published in the BOE by resolution of Congress.

5. Decision on its processing as a bill

In the same session, or immediately, Congress may adopt an additional decision provided in article 86 of the Constitution:

• At the proposal of the groups, the Plenary may agree that the decree-law, once validated, be processed as a bill by the urgent procedure.
• In that case, the ordinary legislative procedure opens (with amendments, committee, and possible Senate intervention), but this is a different path from pure validation and does not condition the immediate validity of the decree-law, which has already been validated by the initial vote.

In summary, the necessary parliamentary procedures after publication in the BOE are: referral to Congress, classification and internal publication, inclusion in the agenda and specific debate in the Plenary (or in the Permanent Deputation if applicable), followed by a simple majority vote to validate or repeal the decree-law, and, if applicable, the complementary agreement to process it as a bill.

The Council of Ministers is the Government body that concentrates practically all key competencies in the approval of royal decree-laws, including those regulating or affecting housing. It acts both in the phase of initiation and drafting and in the final decision to approve the norm and submit it to the control of the General Courts.

1. Constitutional basis and material limits

According to article 86 of the Constitution, the Government may issue decree-laws "in cases of extraordinary and urgent necessity." These are norms with the rank of law, of exceptional use, allowing the Executive to respond quickly to urgent situations without going through the ordinary legislative procedure.

The Council of Ministers, as the Government's collegiate body, has the competence to:

• Politically assess whether the situation of extraordinary and urgent necessity justifying the use of the decree-law exists.
• Ensure respect for material limits: the decree-law cannot affect matters reserved for organic law, the regime of autonomous communities, or the general electoral regime, nor distort fundamental rights.
• In housing matters, verify that the measures fit within ordinary economic and social policies (rent, aid, evictions, taxation, etc.) without invading constitutionally forbidden areas for this instrument.

2. Initiative and drafting within the Government

The initiative for a housing decree-law usually comes from the ministry responsible for housing, urban planning, or economy, which detects the urgency (e.g., sudden rent increases, mortgage crisis, need to extend tenant protection measures) and prepares a draft bill.

At this stage, the Council of Ministers intervenes in a stepped manner:

• Prior political guidance: sets the main lines of the government response (type of measures, temporal scope, affected sectors, budgetary impact).
• Interministerial coordination: resolves conflicts between departments (e.g., housing, treasury, and social affairs) and ensures coherence with the Government program and other existing norms.
• Normative technical control: through support bodies (State Attorney General, advisory bodies), verifies that the text complies with the Constitution and the State-autonomous communities competence distribution, especially delicate in housing.

3. Formal approval of the decree-law

The decisive competence of the Council of Ministers is the formal approval of the royal decree-law. This implies:

• Deliberating and agreeing on the final content of the text.
• Adopting the agreement to approve it as a royal decree-law, indicating the cause of extraordinary and urgent necessity in its preamble.
• Ordering its immediate publication in the Official State Gazette so that it comes into force, given the urgent nature of this type of norms.

In the case of housing measures (eviction moratoriums, rental vouchers, limits on rent updates, etc.), the Council of Ministers also decides the temporal scope (transitional measures, extensions) and the degree of market intervention, assessing their economic and social effects.

4. Referral to Congress and parliamentary control

Once approved, the Council of Ministers has the obligation to refer the decree-law to the Congress of Deputies, which must debate and vote on it within a maximum of 30 days to decide its validation or repeal. Here the competencies of the Council of Ministers are:

• Promote the appearance of the competent Government member (usually the minister) to defend the decree-law and explain the urgency and content of the housing measures.
• Assess whether it is advisable to request Congress to, once validated, agree to process it as a bill, which would open an amendment process and allow adjusting or expanding the measures.
• Respond, through its members, to interpellations, questions, and motions that parliamentary groups formulate as part of the general parliamentary control over Government action.

5. Jurisdictional controls and political responsibility

Although jurisdictional control is exercised by the courts (ultimately the Constitutional Court), the Council of Ministers must:

• Design the housing decree-law considering the constitutional jurisprudence on the use of this instrument and on the competence distribution in housing.
• Assume political responsibility if Congress repeals the decree-law, if critical motions are approved, or if a possible vote of no confidence linked to its housing policy is raised.

In summary, the Council of Ministers concentrates the initiative, drafting, approval, and political defense of housing decree-laws, always within the exceptional framework of article 86 of the Constitution and subject to subsequent control by Parliament and the courts.

An investment fund can continue acquiring housing in Spain, but since 2023 the regulatory framework has significantly tightened everything affecting large holders and the exploitation of those properties, especially in rental and in stressed areas. There is not yet a general state prohibition on funds buying housing, but there is a much more restrictive environment with ongoing reforms specifically aimed at “vulture” funds.

1. Basic legal requirements for a fund to acquire housing

From a legal point of view, a fund buying housing in Spain must comply with two major blocks of requirements:

• Regime of the fund itself and its manager: funds (including real estate funds and closed-end vehicles) are regulated, among other norms, by Law 35/2003, on Collective Investment Institutions and by Law 22/2014 on venture capital entities and other closed-end collective investment entities, as well as by Law 6/2023 on Securities Markets and Investment Services^[1]. This implies:
  • Authorization and supervision by the CNMV of the manager and the investment vehicle.
  • Existence of a depositary and compliance with custody, asset segregation, and control rules developed, for example, by CNMV Circular 4/2016^[1].
  • Rules on investor information, risk management, investment limits, and, where applicable, prudential requirements or European passport.
• Regime of the real estate operation: the fund’s purchase of housing is subject to general civil, urban planning, and tax law:
  • Purchase contract and transfer of ownership by public deed and registration in the Property Registry.
  • Payment of taxes (VAT or Transfer Tax, municipal capital gains, etc.) and compliance with anti-money laundering regulations in transactions.
  • Respect for urban planning rules and, where applicable, protected housing regulations or the right of pre-emption and redemption by the Administrations when existing (as in the Valencian case, which has been subject to political debate and regional reforms)^[20].

Until 2023, these were essentially the key requirements: there was no specific state regime limiting who could buy housing depending on whether it was a fund or an individual, beyond financial and investor protection rules.

2. How the scenario changes with the new housing regulation

2.1. Law 12/2023, on the right to housing

Law 12/2023, of May 24, on the right to housing^[1], in force since May 2023, is the major turning point. It does not prohibit funds from buying housing, but:

• Defines the figure of “large holder”: a natural or legal person owning more than 10 urban residential properties or more than 1,500 m² of residential space, with the possibility that in stressed areas the threshold is lowered to 5 homes when justified by the autonomous community^[1][17].
• Enables the declaration of stressed residential market areas, at the regional initiative, where reinforced rental control measures and additional obligations for large holders can be applied^[5][17]. Catalonia, Navarra, Basque Country, and Galicia, among others, have already declared multiple municipalities under this figure^[17][252147], and the State periodically publishes resolutions with the list of stressed areas^[1][2].
• Limits rental prices in those areas:
  • In general, the new contract cannot exceed the rent of the previous contract updated.
  • When the owner is a large holder, the price is also capped by the State Index of Reference Rental Prices (SERPAVI), approved and developed by regulation since 2024^[5][17].
• Introduces a new definition of large holder and vacant housing to facilitate IBI surcharges and other measures to mobilize the stock held by large owners^[5].
• Strengthens protection against evictions: when the claimant is a large holder and the tenant is vulnerable, conciliation or mediation procedures are required before eviction^[5].

In practice, this does not prevent a fund from continuing to buy housing, but it does reduce its ability to freely set rents and increases procedural and transparency obligations (including how to advertise rentals on portals, which must reflect the reference index and the price of the last contract in stressed areas)^[10][121743].

2.2. Regulatory development and additional pressure on funds

Since 2024, key instruments have been approved that harden the framework:

• State reference price index (SERPAVI), operational since 2024 and already applied, for example, to 140 Catalan municipalities^[17]. It is the basis for setting the rent ceiling for large holders in stressed areas.
• Quarterly resolutions of stressed areas by the Ministry of Housing, consolidating an increasingly broad map of areas where a large fund sees its rental profitability strongly limited^{[1][2][8][197191]}.
• Consumer actions against advertisements offering rentals above legal limits or without mandatory information in stressed areas, also directed at large holders and platforms advertising their properties^[10][121743].

2.3. Initiatives and reforms underway (2025-2026)

In addition to the already effective framework, in 2025-2026 harsher measures have been proposed, some in parliamentary debate or negotiation:

• Proposals to reform the Housing Law to prevent companies and funds from buying housing, promoted by Sumar in Congress, aiming to reserve residential property ownership to natural persons^[3]. These are political initiatives, not current law.
• Negotiation of a new royal decree-law on housing that, according to available information, would include the prohibition of certain speculative purchases by “vulture” funds and a reinforced eviction moratorium for vulnerable people until 2028^{[217431][217878][217891][217122][217289]}. Its final scope will depend on the approved text.
• Regional regulations restricting the ability of large holders to buy individual flats in certain areas or obliging them to allocate their portfolios to regulated rental (for example, agreements in Catalonia so that large owners can only acquire entire buildings with capped rents)^{[134636][184690][197191]}.

3. Aggregate effect on fund requirements

In summary, a fund wishing to acquire housing in Spain must continue to comply with the financial and corporate requirements of collective investment and securities market regulations, plus the general requirements of any buyer. The “new housing regulation” does not prevent it from buying, but it does:

• Make it much more likely to be classified as a large holder.
• Subject its rentals to rent and update caps in stressed areas.
• Impose additional obligations in evictions of vulnerable tenants and in rental advertising.
• Introduce a growing regulatory risk of future specific restrictions on housing purchases by certain funds, currently under debate and negotiation.

All this does not so much change the “act of buying” –which remains legally possible– as the economic and regulatory conditions under which that stock can be exploited, especially in residential rental.

If you are interested, I can specify how this analysis would vary for a specific type of vehicle (SOCIMI, closed-end real estate fund, foreign fund, etc.) and for a particular autonomous community.