Link and Transcript of the interview with Isabel Rodríguez.
We have the Minister of Housing on the phone, so she’ll be able to explain it better than I can. Isabel Rodríguez, Minister of Housing, good morning.
—How are you? Good morning, Carlos.
—Good morning. Thank you for joining us this morning. So, where do we start? These are all proposals you’ve put forward, and we’ll see later if they succeed in the Congress of Deputies, but they all relate to fiscal matters, right?
—Yes
it’s about increasing taxes on those with vacant homes or foreign nationals from outside the EU who buy property in Spain. And on the other hand, increasing deductions for Spanish property owners who rent out their homes and lower the rent prices. Is that the general idea?
—Very good summary.
—Thank you. Let’s start with VAT on tourist rentals, if you don’t mind. It seems the government is declaring war on Airbnb by proposing the maximum VAT of 21% on tourist rentals. Is that what’s being proposed?
-Yes, I believe it’s a proposal, as you said, that approaches the housing issue through fiscal means—on the one hand, incentives, and on the other, disincentives. It’s part of a strategy to tackle, by land, sea, and air, all possible responses to the housing problem in our country—just as other parts of the West and major European cities are doing.
We’ve taken many approaches. Recently, we even supported the construction industry to help it improve productivity, build faster, and with better quality. Just a few weeks ago, we brought the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for construction to the Council of Ministers. Now, we’re addressing this fiscal matter with a goal:
We’re convinced—and share this with a wide social and political majority—that housing must be prioritised for living, and cities for their residents. I believe that deserves a very determined, very ambitious response.
Is this the first thing we’ve done? No. Over the past year and a half leading the Ministry, we’ve done many things. We created a unified registry following a European regulation aimed precisely at tackling the illegality occurring with tourist rentals, controlling fraud in temporary lets. We’ve empowered homeowners’ associations through the Horizontal Property Law. We’ve already limited certain foreign investments by eliminating Golden Visas.
And we continue with this series of initiatives. This one, moreover, cannot be implemented by the Executive alone; it requires parliamentary majority support. That’s why we thought it appropriate for the Socialist Party—of which I am a member and minister—to lead this effort. It also fulfills commitments made by the Prime Minister, the Socialist Party’s election platform, and the resolutions from our most recent national party congress.
But you don’t have a guaranteed parliamentary majority to turn this proposal into law, at least as of today.
—Yes, the government is fully aware of the parliamentary challenge. That’s why, as I mentioned, we’ve already implemented a broad set of actions from the Executive branch with the same goals. Now, we are expanding that approach legislatively, working through Parliament, which obviously has much to contribute.
And I believe it’s hard to oppose this initiative—it’s measured and, at the same time, forceful. It combines incentives to promote the availability of housing, its rehabilitation, and reduced rent prices, while also penalizing what we believe is harming the rental market and citizens: tourist accommodations and non-resident foreign investments.
Therefore, I believe it’s difficult to reject a framework that already enjoys broad social consensus.
And what about Spanish families who have a second home that’s not regularly occupied? Say a family has a house in the village inherited from their parents, but it’s empty—will they pay more tax under this reform?
—Well, you know that in our country, the treatment of primary residences varies under the tax system. What this reform aims to do is support housing policy with incentives for the primary home and use fiscal policies to both penalize vacancy and encourage rehabilitation of homes to make them available for affordable rental.
I’m not forgetting rural areas. While the main housing and rental issues are in large cities, I also receive many requests from rural areas where housing is also needed. Often these homes can’t be inhabited immediately—they require rehabilitation. In cities, the percentage of vacant housing is minimal, and if we zoom in, we’d see that many of these homes are not livable, especially in stressed areas. So, in the face of this emergency, we must mobilize all resources and use every possible means to activate this housing.
There are also new IRPF deductions for landlords. Previously, these applied only to rentals below reference prices in stressed areas. If I understand correctly, your plan is to extend this to non-stressed areas too. Is that because you couldn’t get all the regional governments to declare stressed areas under the housing law?
—Yes, exactly. For example, in Catalonia, these deductions are already in effect. Landlords can reduce rental prices and be rewarded with tax benefits. Everyone wins—the tenant sees their rent drop by around 5%, and the landlord is incentivized to lower prices.
But in places like the Community of Madrid, they’ve refused to apply these measures. I don’t want Madrid tenants to be punished for that decision. They also need lower rent, and we will support landlords there by offering them deductions if they reduce rents—either for homes newly entering the market or those already listed that are rented below the reference index.
The Andalusian government has challenged the central government’s decree creating a registry of tourist apartments. They claim it violates regional authority over housing. Shouldn’t it be up to them to manage such registries?
—Look, like in many debates, citizens don’t want us arguing about jurisdiction. They want solutions. That’s what I’m here to provide: measures to guarantee housing access, reduce rent prices, and prevent speculation. That’s what I expect and ask of all public administrations.
Yes, regional governments have a role to play in regulating tourism and housing. I’m asking them to exercise those powers fully. I don’t understand why, when we put useful tools on the table—especially tools that implement European law—they try to block progress.
How do you explain to a resident of Málaga that their government opposes efforts to crack down on illegal tourist rentals? Or that they’re not helping limit their spread, which blocks access to housing and drives up rents on Calle Larios?
Or how do you justify the Madrid City Council having a list of illegal tourist apartments in the city and doing nothing—just arguing over whose responsibility it is?
With all these measures, we’re trying to equip everyone—local, regional, and national officials—with the tools they need to act politically and solve the problem.
I really don’t understand the challenge from the Junta de Andalucía. All it does is block solutions and deny tools to the same region that already has authority to crack down on illegal tourist rentals or regulate tourism like implementing a tourist tax and using the revenue for housing policies, or creating local ordinances to limit the spread of tourist flats.
I think it doesn’t matter who the people of Andalusia voted for—there’s broad agreement that we need to regulate, if not prohibit, tourist rentals that prevent residents from living in their cities.