MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's left-wing government will restrict evictions of tenants who cannot pay rent, particularly in zones such as Madrid and Barcelona where the real estate market is especially tight, two government sources told Reuters on Monday.
This will be one of the first measures geared toward protecting tenants by the new government, which made accessible housing a priority in its coalition manifesto.
Spanish rental prices have increased by more than 54% on in the last six years, according to data collected by Idealista, a portal with wide coverage of the nation's rental prices.
"The government has decided to take measures to put the brakes on another social scourge ... evictions due to unpaid rent," one source said.
"We will take the necessary measures to avoid this kind of eviction, especially in areas of the market where renting is under pressure and where major property owners dedicate themselves to real estate investment."
The second source said the measure would fall under the broader reform of Spain's Urban Lease Law, expected to pass before the summer.
Neither source could spell out in detail how the government planned to make it harder to evict non-paying tenants.
The same sources said the government would prolong a ban on evicting vulnerable home-owners who miss mortgage payments, due to expire on May 15. Such evictions fell 25.1% in 2019 to their lowest level in 12 years.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said last month that Spain was facing housing problems of "stunning proportions", affecting people who were already struggling, without jobs or adequate welfare benefits.
The government said last month that it would publish an index of nationwide rental prices, which could be a first step toward enabling rent controls.
Spain's real estate market suffered deeply during the economic crisis. A Bank of Spain report published in August 2019 cited Idealista's data to underline the sharp increase in the average cost of rent.
The average monthly rent in February was 11.1 euros per sq meter, compared to 7.22 euros in February 2014, an Idealista official said on Tuesday.