Property owners in Spain are beginning to retreat from the rental market amid uncertainty over the government's housing initiatives, ABC España reports. The measures are contained in two royal decree-laws that the government intends to push through on Friday at an extraordinary plenary session of the Congress of Deputies.
Among the provisions are the reinstatement of the anti-eviction shield, a compulsory two-year extension of existing rental agreements and open-ended lease contracts. According to ABC, these have brought the rental market to a standstill in recent days, with signings of contracts being put off and homes shifting out of the rental sector and into the sales market.
"La venta está en precios récord y el alquiler en riesgos máximos" — sales are at record prices while renting faces maximum risk.
José María Alfaro, president of the Federación de Asociaciones Inmobiliarias (FAI), confirmed the pullback, telling the newspaper that the trend had taken hold over the past few days.
