Council of Ministers

The Government of Spain promotes the regulation of short-term rentals and the new call for applications for the Youth Rental Voucher

Council of Ministers - 2024.10.15

The Government has also submitted the Fiscal and Structural Plan to the European Commission, and has earmarked €78 million to finance loans to SMEs and young entrepreneurs.

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

15/10/2024. Press conference after the Council of Ministers. The Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, the Minister for... The Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, and the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference (Pool Moncloa /Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The Council of Ministers has presented two measures in addition to those already adopted in the last legislature to guarantee the right to housing for all citizens. They pursue the objective of expanding the public housing stock to converge with European standards so that no Spaniard has to spend more than 30% of their resources on household expenses.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, announced that short-term rentals will be regulated, and the third edition of the Bono Alquiler Joven (Youth Rental Voucher) will be implemented.

Short-term rental regulation

Isabel Rodríguez reported on the processing of the draft Royal Decree creating the Digital One-Stop Shop for Leases and regulating the collection and exchange of data on short-term rental and accommodation services, in application of a European regulation.

The future regulation has already passed the public consultation process and has received more than 100 contributions from citizens, and is now subject to a public hearing, prior to its final processing by the Council of Ministers.

The regulation of short-term contracts was not completed in the parliamentary procedure of the Housing Act. Rodríguez said that work is now underway to regulate the different formulas: seasonal rentals, tourist rentals, room rentals and boats, among others, so that they do not clash with the right of access to housing, and so that they comply with European regulations.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The minister explained that the Royal Decree the government is promoting increases the amount of information on these short-term rentals. To this effect, landlords will be obliged to have a unique registration number without which they will not be able to market on platforms. "Seasonal tourist dwellings or rooms that do not have this registration cannot be marketed", she said.

A Digital One-Stop-Shop for Leases will grant each dwelling a registration number, supported by the Land Registry, which will have to certify that it complies with regional regulations, urban by-laws and, where applicable, the statutes of the residents' associations. This window will also be connected to the European one-stop shop, which will become operational in May 2026.

The minister remarked that through the Property Register, "we are going to be able to prosecute all the fraud and illegality that is taking place in tourist accommodation, seasonal accommodation, and even room contracts".

For their part, the platforms will have to identify the registration number of the dwellings in their advertisements.

Isabel Rodríguez stressed that with this new instrument "the government achieves the objectives of pursuing fraud, protecting those who really need seasonal accommodation and putting a stop to illegal tourist accommodation".

The minister underlined that the executive "will not stop", and will use all its resources and determination to respond to the problem faced by millions of people in our country: "We did it to alleviate a health crisis, we did it to address an energy crisis, and we are going to do it to respond to the housing problem".

In this regard, Rodríguez recalled that the government has already allocated an unparalleled €20.4 billion in funding to public housing policies, and has unblocked operations such as the Campamento neighbourhood in Madrid, which will have affordable public housing.

New call for applications for the Bono Alquiler Joven

The government has approved the distribution of the €200 million of the Bono Alquiler Joven (Youth Rental Voucher) agreed at the Sectoral Conference on Housing and the Urban Agenda on 3 October.

Young people who meet the requirements will receive a grant of €250 per month for rent for a period of two years, with the aim of facilitating their emancipation.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda called on the autonomous communities to complement the government's efforts and extend the voucher to their fellow citizens, as Catalonia and the Valencian Community have already done, and Asturias is going to do. "I insist on the importance of making progress in the financial co-responsibility of housing policies," she said.

Isabel Rodríguez pointed out that the next sectoral conference will ratify these amounts and address how to improve the processing of aid. "In the evaluation data on the functioning of the Bono Alquiler Joven, we have seen how autonomous communities have needed three months to resolve aid and others have taken up to a year," she said.

The executive wants payments to be made more promptly, and for all communities to comply with pending payments to the beneficiaries of this bonus, so that there is no discrimination between some young people and others depending on the territory and the management of the housing department of each community.

Sound and balanced economic growth

The Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa /Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

In compliance with the EU's new governance framework, the executive has submitted to the European Commission the medium-term Fiscal and Structural Plan, which includes a reduction of the deficit and debt compatible with solid and balanced growth.

At the press conference following the Council of Ministers, the Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, highlighted the "growth momentum" of the Spanish economy in recent quarters, above 3% in year-on-year terms. He explained that this evolution is based on a "very good performance" of the labour market, with record numbers of new registrations and greater job stability. Moreover, according to the minister, this growth is combined with the moderation of prices, the "very positive" contribution of exports and the reduction in public debt.

In this regard, Carlos Cuerpo mentioned the ratification of the 1.5% price increase in September, and the fact that food prices are rising at the lowest rate in three years. "The progressive recovery of household purchasing power is confirmed, with wages growing significantly above prices and, in particular, above the price of the shopping basket," he said. The Minister for Economy also mentioned the upward revision of growth forecasts by the main analysts, both for this year and for 2025.

Medium-term Fiscal and Structural Plan

In this economic context, the Council of Ministers has sent to Brussels the fiscal plan for the period 2025-2028. Carlos Cuerpo recalled that from next year the European fiscal rules will be back in force, after having been deactivated due to the pandemic, and that this is the new framework that was agreed during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2023.

The rules are guided by "a vision of the future", such that the consolidation of public accounts does not come at the cost of slowing growth or penalising investment. This framework for the next four years will be accompanied by an annual document, the budget plan, detailing all the measures needed to meet the objectives for the following year.

The minister stressed that even in the absence of fiscal rules, Spain has reduced the public deficit from 10% in 2020 to the 3% forecast for the end of this year. As for public debt, the government expects it to stand at 102.5% of GDP by the end of 2024, down more than 20 points from the peak reached in 2021.

Deficit reduction and commitment to reform and investment

The Fiscal and Structural Plan states that spending will grow by 3.4% on average per year between 2025 and 2028. This rate will allow Spain to spend around €6 billion more per year than the average spending in the period 2014-2018. This higher spending is compatible with the fiscal responsibility strategy the executive presented last July. The deficit target for this year is 3%, a percentage that is to be reduced in the following three years to 2.5%, 2.1% and 1.8%. As for debt, this should fall from 100% of GDP as early as 2026, to pre-pandemic levels in 2027, and to around 90% of GDP in 2031.

The document submitted to the European Commission includes "ambitious" commitments on reforms and investments that go beyond those set out in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Among other areas, the minister referred to housing, immigration and the business climate, and to specific measures related to pensions, the fight against fraud, electronic invoicing and tax reform.

Carlos Cuerpo stated that the plan, in short, will guarantee the sustainability of public accounts in a way that is compatible with the maintenance of the welfare state, the modernisation of the economy, and sustained and robust growth.

Financial allocations for industry, health and municipalities

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa /Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, announced that at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, the Council of Ministers has approved €78 million to finance loans for SMEs and young entrepreneurs.. The minister explained that the financing for SMEs will include loans of between €25 billion and €1,500 billion, with a repayment period of ten years, while in the line of loans for young entrepreneurs, the amounts will be between €25 billion and €75 billion, with a repayment period of seven years.

Meanwhile, in the area of health, Alegría reported on the distribution of €44 million to the autonomous communities for projects that favour the rational use of medicines, and for the promotion of the National Bone Marrow Donation Plan and the National Umbilical Cord Blood Plan.. This funding comes from pharmaceutical contributions by sales volume, or in other words the percentage collected from pharmaceutical companies on sales of medicines that are publicly funded.

Last, at the request of the Ministry of Digital Transition, the Council of Ministers also approved a grant of €13 million for the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), with the aim of "improving the digitisation of data in important areas such as intelligent mobility and the management of critical resources," Alegría said. The minister pointed out that this grant will also address the possibility of generating a map of economic activities in the different cities. "In short, sharing data to improve the digitisation of the management of our cities," she concluded.