Latest news with #HousingLaw
The Star
7 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
Vietnam to study credit packages for young homebuyers
The SBV was also tasked with guiding commercial banks to increase lending and disbursement activities in the real estate sector. — Vietnam News HANOI: The government has directed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to prioritise lending for commercial housing projects with reasonable prices and to research credit packages for young people looking to buy homes. The SBV was also tasked with guiding commercial banks to increase lending and disbursement activities in the real estate sector, particularly focusing on housing projects that align with affordability. The move aims to stimulate credit growth and support the government's goal of achieving 8% gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year. Commercial banks are also encouraged to actively participate in a 120 trillion dong or about US$4.6bil preferential credit loan programme for the housing sector. Additionally, the SBV is exploring the development of medium-term credit packages with stable interest rates for affordable commercial housing projects. Banks are also being instructed to rigorously inspect loans involving real estate collateral. This includes ensuring proper asset valuation, compliance with lending regulations and implementation of effective credit risk management practices. To facilitate greater access to credit, the SBV has also been asked to streamline administrative procedures and lending conditions for both individuals and businesses. At the same time, regulatory oversight will be tightened to prevent corruption, market manipulation and the creation of artificial property price levels. Meanwhile, the government has assigned the Construction Ministry, in coordination with the Agriculture and Environment Ministry, to urgently review the existing Housing Law and Real Estate Business Law. The goal is to identify legal inconsistencies and practical challenges that hinder the healthy development of the real estate market. The outcome of the review will form the basis of a government report to be submitted to the National Assembly, and also proposals for a resolution to amend relevant laws including those governing land, housing and real estate businesses. The government has also ordered a comprehensive review of all related decrees and circulars, emphasising the need to eliminate burdensome administrative procedures and align regulatory frameworks with current market realities. The result of these reviews is expected to be submitted to the government later this month. Local authorities are being urged to expedite land-use planning and create land reserves for housing development, especially in urban areas and industrial parks. — Viet Nam News/ANN
Local Spain
2 days ago
- Business
- Local Spain
What are Socimis and why are they at the heart of Spain's housing debate?
In recent years the Spanish government has been trying to solve the housing crisis in the country by passing various laws and reforms, including the Housing Law in 2023, which in turn created many more problems, according to some experts. In January 2025, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced 12 measures aimed at increasing the number of affordable homes, achieve better regulation and give more aid to those who need it. The most eye-catching measure is the proposed 100 percent tax on property buyers who don't reside in the EU, a levy which will double the price they pay for homes n Spain. In addition to building new social housing and cracking down on seasonal rents, among many other measures, the government is also now turning its attention to Socimis (known as Sociedades Anónimas Cotizadas de Inversión Inmobiliarias) to try and further help access to housing. As announced by Sánchez, the government wants to change the tax benefits regime for Socimis, which are essentially property investment vehicles, so that they only apply to companies that manage affordable rentals. Note that this measure will only be implanted on residential Socimis, so those that invest in offices, shopping centres or any other kind of property will not be affected. What are Socimis? According to Delanto Chambers, Anglo-Spanish legal and tax experts: "A Socimi (Sociedades Anónimas Cotizadas de Inversión Inmobiliaria) translates as Listed Corporations for Investing in the Real Estate Market and is similar to a Real Estate Investment Trust in the UK (abbreviated to REIT). Socimis are public limited investment companies, created to encourage long-term investment in the Spanish property market through investment in Spanish urban real estate for rent such as homes, hotels or commercial premises." This essentially means that Socimis are like limited companies listed on stock markets whose only trade in properties. Delanto Chambers, presumably before this latest government announcement, previously described Socimis as "attractive investment vehicles" due to the "substantial tax breaks on transaction costs and profits allowing shareholders to maximise their investment." Crucially, they added, "provided that the investment and dividend distribution requirements are met Socimis are Corporate Income Tax taxpayers, although subject to a tax rate of 0 percent." The government plan for Socimis Socimis' tax benefits could be set to change if the Socialists' draft bill receives parliamentary approval. When announcing the proposal in January, Sánchez said: 'We must finally put an end to the injustice of some investors using this instrument to pay less tax than ordinary citizens when buying the same property.' Back in November, the government green lighted the abolition of the existing Socimi tax regime, which, as noted above, essentially made them exempt if they distributed at least 80 percent of dividends to shareholders. Now, the government is instead proposing they be taxed at the general corporate tax rate of 25 percent. However, they have suggested tax breaks for Socimis that help with Spain's housing crisis: 50 percent if more than 60 percent of the asset portfolio is allocated to affordable rentals, and 100 percent if the profit is additionally reinvested in this type of housing over the following three years. Sánchez's administration will consider properties affordable if their rent does not exceed the index established by the Housing Ministry, if the property is classified as protected, if the rent does not exceed 30 percent of the tenant's income, or if the cost is below €26,400 per year. All the above measures have been suggested because the Spanish government feels Socimis have so far failed to improve the supply of affordable housing in Spain. Experts seem to think the fiscal clampdown will disproportionately affect foreigners, rather than Spaniards. According to market estimates, the measure could in theory impact more than half of total property investment in Spain. Specifically, foreign investment accounts for an average of 61 percent of the total volume in the Spanish real estate sector since 2014, according to data from the consultancy firm Savills. In 2023, 70 percent of Socimis' capital was held by international investors, unsurprising given their generous shareholder remuneration.
Local Spain
02-06-2025
- Business
- Local Spain
Five reasons why Spain's Housing Law has failed
The Housing Law was a reform of the Urban Rental Law and was designed to regulate rental prices by creating a rent control index, increase taxes for landlords with empty properties and create incentives for those who rented out their homes at below market value. Two years on, however, and the situation has only gotten worse. Spain's average rental prices actually increased 24 percent between May 2023 and April 2025, according to data from property portal Idealista. The supply of housing on the permanent rental market has fallen by 17 percent in Spain during that time and there has also been a significant increase in the number of people interested in renting, up 79 percent in the last two years. This increase in demand and dwindling supply has also led to historic prices. All these indicate that Spain's Housing Law has failed abysmally, but why? Landlords are turning to seasonal rentals According to Idealista, while the supply of regular rentals is declining, seasonal rentals have soared with a 25 percent year-on-year increase in supply in the first quarter, now accounting for 14 percent of the entire rental market in Spain. In Barcelona, 47 percent of the homes listed are seasonal rentals, while in San Sebastián they account for 37 percent of the total. Many landlords are tired of legal uncertainty surrounding standard rentals and so many of them have switched to temporary or seasonal rentals instead, especially given that they're in a legal limbo between short-term and long-term rentals which currently don't have to abide by such strict regulations. A drop in supply and skyrocketing demand Stats from Spain's main property portal show that the national rental supply fell by 3 percent in the first quarter of 2025, in line with what's been happening over the past two years. Meanwhile, demand is unyielding and the number of people who want to rent an apartment only grows more. For example, each property saw an average of 35 tenants apply for it between January and March of this year. Competition for rentals is highest in Barcelona with 61 families per listing, followed by Palma de Mallorca (57), Madrid (42), Bilbao (37), San Sebastián (37), and Seville (35). Below the national average are Valencia (31), Málaga (28), and Alicante (25). In the two years since the Housing Law was implemented, demand has grown by 79 percent. Rent prices continue to rise The rental market, is under a lot of strain with 25 provincial capitals seeing record highs. Prices have in fact not stopped rising in these two years and are now up 24 percent on average. Some of the highest increases have been seen in Segovia (39 percent), Valencia (35 percent), Madrid (31 percent) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (30 percent). In the major capitals, the trend has also been towards rising rents - Barcelona (28 percent), Alicante (27 percent) and Málaga and Palma (24 percent). Around 25 provincial capitals closed April 2025 with rents at record highs, reaching an average of €14.3 per square metre, according to the latest price report published by Idealista. Tighter controls on short-term rent haven't had desired effect The Spanish government has introduced greater controls on Airbnb-style lets, such as the registry of short-term rentals, which means all tourist apartments, seasonal rentals, and room rentals need to register on a platform before being able to be advertised. This will not come into force until July 1st. Furthermore, landlords and tenants are being forced to provide reasons for short-term rentals such as temporary job contracts, courses or short term visas, which is also causing problems. Since April, it's also been in Spain to convert them into short-term holiday lets for tourists. Despite all these measures, landlords are not putting their properties on the long-term rental market, with many preferring to either leave them empty or make them temporary rentals. Seasonal or temporary rentals are still being regulated by the Civil Code, as political parties cannot agree on the best steps moving forward. 'Stressed areas' plan hasn't worked One of the big parts of the Housing Law was the introduction of 'Stressed Residential Markets'. This limits the rise in prices for new rental contracts in certain areas. Areas were considered to be 'stressed' if prices exceeded the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of their respective province by five points or where families dedicated more than 30 percent of their salary to paying the rent. Each area of the country was in charge of whether they wanted to implement this or not. Catalonia was the first region to declare 140 municipalities as stressed in March 2024. This was expanded to include 131 more localities in October. The problem is that these have taken a while to be implemented. Only just at the start of this year several Basque municipalities joined the 271 Catalan towns. San Sebastián is the latest municipality to join the stressed areas in the Basque Country. Other cities, such as Bilbao, Vitoria i Gasteiz, A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, are currently studying whether they meet the requirements to apply for this or not. There are also still questions as to whether it works or not. Idealista analysed data from the 15 largest Catalan cities and saw that the number of long-term rental contracts has dropped by 21.5 percent since the Housing Law and the rental cap came into effect.
Times
16-05-2025
- Times
Can a landlord enter a property without permission?
Q. My daughter lives alone in a rental property. Her landlord often lets himself in, saying he has the right to carry out inspections. Can he do this? If so, what limits are there on these inspections? A. Tenancy agreements include express or implied rights for tenants to have 'quiet possession' of their rental properties. This means they enjoy a right to exclusive possession, and they can stop anyone (including their landlords) from going in without permission. Landlords who enter without consent may be committing offences under section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 or the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. They also face substantial damages claims for breach of the covenant or under section 14 of the Housing Act 1988. • My
Local Spain
10-04-2025
- Business
- Local Spain
Barcelona to limit temporary rent prices so landlords stop skirting rules
The Catalan regional government has passed long-awaited rules to better regulate temporary rental contracts (contratos de temporada) and room rentals in the northeastern region. The legislation aims to control seasonal rental contracts and will limit the conditions, such as price caps, under which they can be rented for tourist or recreational use, a common method used by landlords to get around rules and bypass price caps. This comes at a time of crisis in the rental market in Catalonia and the country more widely. Nine out of ten tenants in Barcelona now have temporary rental contracts, according to a December 2024 study published by the Barcelona Urban Research Institute (IDRA). T hree quarters of rental ads in Barcelona are for rooms, which are also usually done via seasonal or temporary contratos de temporada. The reason why temporary or seasonal rental contracts under a year in length have become so common in Barcelona and around Spain is that landlords don't have to abide by price controls as they're not deemed long-term residential contracts. Barcelona and Catalonia already have price controls for 'stressed rental areas' which mean that long-term rentals, including new ones, cannot be above a certain price, and on a national level there's a rent cap on existing long-term contracts that prevent year-on-year increases of more than around 3 percent, also in place in Catalonia. Therefore, if a landlord rents out a property to a tenant for between 32 days (anything under is considered short-term rental) and 364 days (anything over is deemed a long-term contract) they don't have to abide by the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) as they're considered to be temporary rentals. Facing this, a deal was struck between the ruling Catalan Socialists and smaller parties ERC, Comuns and CUP to rubber stamp a decree-law on housing in the regional Parlament and move forward with processing it as a bill. The main change is limits on the type of rentals used for seasonal contracts. They can be recreational, for which there is no price cap, or residential, for which there are. Contracts must meet certain requirements for offering a seasonal rental for recreational use as they are more financially lucrative. However, the idea behind the new rules is that new contracts must be mainly residential. Therefore, seasonal contracts for residential use will be subject to the price ceiling set by the Housing Law for conventional rental contracts, a move intended to discourage the method used by many owners to circumvent the rules. 'In the case of seasonal rentals, the new contracts must prove their use and purpose, and the residence of the person renting them,' said Susanna Segovia of Comuns. Thus, only if a person can prove that they have a fixed home can landlords offer seasonal rentals for recreational use. 'This is a very good agreement, a maximum agreement,' Segovia added. The agreement also extends protections on housing that was due to expire with the declaration of further 'stressed rental areas', and the regional government will start a register of large property owners. There was already an inventory of companies and investment funds with multiple properties, but the agreement allows for the inclusion of individuals on the database in order to more easily apply property transfer taxes. Around a month ago, the Socialists and Comuns agreed to increase the tax from 10 percent to 20 percent for large property owners. Students who move to another city during the academic year will be able to obtain seasonal rentals for residential use, for which the price will be subject to limitations. The new regulation also limits room rentals: the sum of all rents may not exceed the ceiling established by state law.
