Spain Government Announces Measures to Tackle Housing Crisis

15 Jan 2025 CW Team

Spain's leftist government unveiled new measures to tackle the country's long-running housing crisis on Monday, targeting a building boom and tax hikes on the owners of tourist rentals. The 12 announcements aim to offer more social housing, improve regulation and provide more support to renters, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told an economic forum in Madrid.

Supply is lagging far behind demand in the sector that consistently ranks among top concerns in the European country, scarred by a market bust that accompanied the 2008 global financial crisis.

New homes put on the market have trickled to around 90,000 per year as the country records 300,000 new households, Sanchez said. The premier announced the transfer of two million square metres of land to a newly created public company to construct "thousands and thousands" of affordable social housing units.

Social housing makes up only 2.5 percent of Spain's total stock, whereas in EU peers France and the Netherlands it is 14 percent and 34 percent respectively, Sanchez said.

The premier announced higher taxes and tighter regulation for tourist apartments, often blamed for reducing the availability of residential properties and causing rents to spike in the world's second most-visited country.

"It is not fair that those who own three, four, five apartments for short-term rental pay less tax than hotels," Sanchez said.

Sanchez also promised a tax exemption for owners who rent their properties according to the official index, even in areas not declared under market tension.

His government passed a flagship housing law in 2023 aiming to boost the construction of social housing, cap rents in areas under the greatest market pressure and inflict penalties on owners who leave their properties unoccupied. But rents have continued to climb, increasing by 11 percent in 2024 according to real estate portal Idealista.

Infrastructure Transport

10 Jul 2026

Uttar Pradesh unveils infrastructure-led growth roadmap at RAHSTA

Mumbai, 9 July 2026: Uttar Pradesh’s ambitious infrastructure-led growth strategy took centre stage on Day 2 of the 16th RAHSTA Expo, where senior government officials outlined how expressways, industrial corridors and technology-driven governance are transforming the state into one of India's most attractive investment destinations.Delivering the keynote address, Srihari Pratap Shahi, IAS, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), highlighted the state's long-term vision of integrating world-class expressways with industrial dev..

NCW closes PRIME Offices Fund at Rs 40 billion

Nuvama and Cushman & Wakefield Management (NCW) has announced the final close of its flagship PRIME Offices Fund at approximately Rs 40 billion, exceeding its original target of Rs 30 billion following strong investor demand.The fund was launched to provide Indian investors with access to institutional-grade commercial office assets across key office markets in the country. According to NCW, the increase in the fund size was supported by strong investor participation and the availability of investment opportunities in India's office sector.The fund has already committed around 45 per cent ..

Mayfair Housing adopts Autodesk Forma for digital project planning

Mayfair Housing has entered into a three-year strategic partnership with Autodesk to deploy Autodesk Forma, an AI-enabled cloud platform, as part of its digital transformation programme aimed at improving project planning and execution across its development and redevelopment portfolio.The platform will be integrated into the company's Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflow to support architects, planners and project teams during the early stages of design and development. Autodesk Forma combines real-world data, environmental simulations and collaborative workflows to facilitate data-d..