Spanish Law of residential tenancies. Historical developments and current regulation and trends

Abstract

The housing rental market in Spain has been regulated for decades through special rules on urban leases. This special regulation is aimed to protect tenants, who are considered the weak part of the contract, while the general provisions for leases in the Spanish Civil Code are only subsidiarily applicable. The purpose of this article is to provide a broad view of the Spanish legal framework for tenancies, taking into account the historical development of special rules on urban leases, including rights and obligation of the parties and mandatory provisions for this kind of contract. Since 2013, the liberalization of this regime is jeopardizing tenants' stability, affordability and flexibility, which had lead to a proposal for new rules in Catalonia