The constant increase in price is not the only problem linked to the housing crisis currently affecting Lanzarote. Added to this situation is the fact that most of the homes offered for rent on the island's main real estate portals only offered temporary contracts, which implies greater residential insecurity for people looking for a long-term home on the island.
The Minister of Housing of the Government of Spain, Isabel Rodríguez (PSOE), pointed out this Tuesday, while announcing the decrees approved in the Council of Ministers regarding housing, that "fraud" has been detected in temporary rentals and also in room rentals.
With the aim of avoiding the application of the Urban Leases Law, which automatically extends the duration of rental contracts and limits annual increases in rental prices, some landlords and companies have decided to leave the permanent market and offer their properties only for temporary rental to evade this law, as the Spanish Executive has reported.
The situation is reflected in the main real estate portals. For example, on the real estate portal Idealista, 77 houses and apartments were offered for rent in Lanzarote in mid-April. More than six out of ten listings only offered the possibility of renting temporary housing, that is, with contracts of less than eleven months. Five months later, on the same real estate portal, the situation has not changed: out of 93 listings, 53 are for temporary rentals, that is, 56.9% of the total.
Other real estate portals such as Fotocasa, with fewer available listings, repeat the situation: of the 29 properties advertised for rent, almost half (41%) correspond to temporary rentals.
In addition to generating housing insecurity among the population by forcing them to return to a saturated residential market, temporary rental contracts are not tax-deductible on income tax returns as they cannot be declared as habitual residence and prevent the people of Lanzarote from accessing the regional aid of the Rental Bonus.
Controls on temporary rentals
In the decrees approved this past Tuesday in the Council of Ministers by the Government of Spain and published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), this situation with temporary rentals is addressed. Pending revalidation by political groups in Congress this Friday, the Executive has already announced measures to protect tenants and obligations for landlords.
Among the measures, the decree-law states that any temporary rental contract or room rental contract that does not expressly justify the reason why the tenant needs temporary, not permanent, housing will become "automatically a regular contract".
Meanwhile, all temporary contracts must be longer than 31 days and cannot generally exceed twelve months, with possible exceptions. The renewal or succession of "more than two consecutive [temporary] contracts" between the same parties and on the same property will be considered a regular lease.
In addition, the rents of temporary contracts that are entered into consecutively on the same property cannot include a rent price increase greater than the Reference Index for the Annual Update of Housing Lease Contracts (IRAV).
Meanwhile, the additional guarantee agreed upon cannot exceed one month's rent. At the same time, the landlord will bear all costs of maintenance and repairs for ordinary wear and tear.
However, this regulation will only affect contracts signed from the entry into force of the decree-law and not contracts already signed.
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