Catalonia's bill to limit speculative home purchases has been paused after the Council of Statutory Guarantees, the region's consultative legal body, unanimously found that its current wording conflicts with private-property, inheritance and freedom-of-enterprise rights.

For people seeking housing in areas under residential-market pressure, the pause means the proposed restriction will not take effect in its present form. The Comuns proposal would allow purchases of up to four homes, including homes intended for children or other family members, while seeking to curb the accumulation of housing.

The government has said it will seek a revised text with the PSC, ERC, Comuns and CUP. The Council's opinion is not binding, but its ruling halted the bill's parliamentary processing after Junts and the PP referred it to the body in mid-July.

According to the Council's ruling, the use of a single-reading procedure also breached Article 138 of Parliament's Regulations, which governs that expedited route, and Article 23.2 of Spain's Constitution on equal access to public functions and offices.

The Council also concluded that the bill's central article intrudes on the Spanish state's exclusive power to set the basic rules for contractual obligations.

"All legal measures [.] to protect the right to housing in Catalonia" will be pursued in line with the Statute, Minister for Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition Sílvia Paneque said.

What the original proposal would have done

The bill was admitted for single-reading consideration in July with votes from the PSC, ERC, Comuns and CUP. Its key provision would allow planning rules and municipal ordinances in designated tense residential-market areas to require certain properties involved in specified legal transactions to be assigned a particular use.

  • The Comuns said the proposal targeted the accumulation of housing rather than ownership itself.
  • Junts and the PP argued that it breached property rights when they sought the Council's opinion.
  • The government now intends to negotiate a replacement draft intended to meet the legal objections.

Any new restrictions on speculative purchases will depend on the text the government brings back to Parliament after those negotiations.

Reported by vilaweb.cat, en.ara.cat, elconstitucional.es, VilaWeb Feed.