'RHC warns: federal housing law will worsen access to housing'

'housing rights in international law, European Union law, the Constitution and Statute of the Autonomy, and its impact on Catalonia; the measures of the new law related to owners and mortgage debtors and current Catalan housing legislation; the measures of the law in relation to tenants and consumers and its relation to current Catalan legislation in this area; current housing problems in contract, family and inheritance law, as well as in administrative, urban planning and housing law.

This workshop concluded that the state housing law would exacerbate housing affordability problems for a variety of reasons. In their view, the state law does not strike the necessary balance between the rights''owners and tenants of residential premises, as it is a law that leaves open the uncertainties of the rules of play in the rental market. This new law also contains various measures affecting both the behavior of private individuals and private companies and investment funds, as well as the behavior of public administrations (with their own regulation of civil law, administrative law, tax law, urban planning law, etc.). One of the most controversial measures was the imposition of limits on the indexation of rents, in line with already existing regulations in other countries such as France, for example; a legal regulation to be reviewed after three years.

At the same time, the new legislation makes''distinction between two types of owners: large holders and the rest. Large holders are natural or legal persons who own more than 10 dwellings (in Barcelona, for example, 36% of the housing stock is in their hands, mostly legal persons engaged in economic activities) or five if the Autonomous Communities decide to do so in possible temporary zones of a tight housing market.

The rapporteurs also emphasized that the state residential law leaves very important issues open, such as the regulation of the rental of tourist accommodations or rooms. These are significant issues that legal experts believe should be worked on in the future to guarantee the right to stay in large''cities.

Unlawful squatting. Another aspect that was analyzed in this workshop was illegal squatting, looking at the civil, procedural and criminal aspects arising from this phenomenon.