The People's Party brings today to Congress, after a year of parliamentary paralysis, the Bill of Measures for Urban Development and Housing, in which document to which Demócrata has had access, a transformation of the Spanish urban planning system and the rental market is proposed.
The text is structured into four large blocks —administrative efficiency, legal certainty, strengthening of powers, and reform of housing policy— and incorporates as central axes the end of tense areas, the deregulation of the rental market, the fight against squatting, and the expansion of powers for Ceuta and Melilla, among other issues.
A MORE AGILE ADMINISTRATION TO UNBLOCK PROJECTS
1. Reports within the deadline to avoid blockages
The rule puts an end to delays in the issuance of sectoral reports, which in practice paralyze urban planning. If administrations do not respond within the deadline, the reports will be considered favorable, avoiding administrative blockages. In addition, their content is limited to the strict competencies of each body to reinforce legal certainty.
2. State centralization of urban planning reports
The Government Delegations will coordinate the management of sectoral State reports (Coasts, Hydrographic Confederations, air safety, among others), which must be resolved within a maximum of three months. If there is no response, very brief additional deadlines will be activated and, finally, silence will be interpreted as favorable.
3. Faster licenses: silence becomes positive
New construction and rehabilitation licenses will be granted if not resolved within three months, which represents a key change to accelerate housing construction. Only actions on protected, cataloged, or rural land, and certain environmental or forestry cases, will be excluded from this regime.
LEGAL CERTAINTY TO AVOID URBAN BLOCKAGES
4. End of cascading nullities of urban plans
The law corrects a recurring problem: the annulment of general plans due to formal defects that block entire cities. From now on, nullity will not automatically drag down all derived planning, and the correction of non-serious errors will be allowed.
5. Urban planning rulings with solutions and not blockages
When there are pending rulings for execution, proceedings may be rolled back to correct defects instead of paralyzing all planning. Plans may remain provisionally in effect while errors are corrected, with fixed deadlines.
6. End of abusive urban planning challenges
Public action is limited to prevent challenges for spurious or economic purposes. Only those who can prove legitimate interest or environmental entities with real activity and seniority will be able to appeal. In addition, prior control is reinforced to avoid abusive litigation.
7. Procedural reforms to provide stability to the system
The contentious-administrative jurisdiction is adapted to avoid disproportionate annulments of urban planning, providing greater stability to administrative decisions and reducing the impact of litigation on urban development.
MORE AUTONOMY FOR CEUTA AND MELILLA
8. Recovery of urban planning powers
Ceuta and Melilla will be able to approve their own general and special plans with prior report from the State, recovering powers lost in 1999. The objective is to place them at a level of self-government comparable to that of the other autonomous communities.
A NEW HOUSING POLICY: LESS INTERVENTION AND MORE SUPPLY
9. Repeal of rent-controlled areas
It is proposed to eliminate rent-controlled areas, considering them a figure that restricts supply and generates market distortions. Their application, especially in Catalonia, is pointed out as a factor in the contraction of the rental market.
10. End of interventionism in rental prices
The proposition proposes the repeal of rent price controls. The text argues that the intervention initiated in 2022 and the subsequent Housing Law have generated legal uncertainty and the withdrawal of housing from the market. Reports from the General Council of the Judiciary, the Institute of Economic Studies, Fedea, and the International Monetary Fund are cited, as well as international experiences such as Catalonia, Berlin, Scotland, or San Francisco, which have reportedly shown negative effects on supply.
11. End of impunity for "inquiocupación"
The framework for "inquiocupación" is reformed to prevent prolonged non-payment from going unanswered effectively. The text reviews the vulnerability criteria introduced by the Housing Law and denounces its impact on eviction deadlines, which have reportedly doubled to reach 21 months in some cases.