On Sunday, representatives of the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) gathered in Palma's Plaça Espanya to denounce the housing situation and to urge tenants to take advantage of a legal loophole to protect their contracts for two more years.
The group was referring to the thousands of tenants in the Balearics - said to be as many as 24,000 - whose contracts expire this year and who could face significant rent increases, assuming their contracts are renewed, that is.
The loophole relates to a decree issued by the Spanish Government last week. Pedro Sánchez's PSOE wished to introduce a decree for measures to mitigate the effects of the conflict in the Middle East, which they were able to, but only after agreeing to a second decree for housing demanded by coalition partners Sumar.
This second decree allows tenants to obtain a contract extension on the same terms as the existing one. This would prevent a large increase in the rent. However, both decrees require verification by Congress within thirty days. Sánchez accepts that, at present, there isn't sufficient support, but the decrees are in effect for the time being.
This was why PAH spokesperson, Ángela Pons, urged tenants not to wait until the last minute and to take advantage of the fact that the decree blocking abusive rent increases is in effect this month. Tenants should formally request an extension of their current lease.
"The problem we have is that most people who were paying 600, 700, or 800 euros are suddenly seeing their rent jump to 1,500 or 1,600 euros. Now we're seeing rents of 1,800 euros," she stated.
While this may be occurring in some instances, it has been pointed out that not all owners are applying excessive increases. There is a realisation that tenants simply can't afford them, the possibility of there being these increases having come about by the ending of a measure to contain rents that was introduced during the pandemic. The Balearic Government is meanwhile looking at tax breaks to encourage owners not to increase rents excessively.