Housing politics

Rent Controls, Landlord Bashing, And The Same Old Mistake – France Shows Where Spain And The UK Are Heading

Published

2 weeks ago

December 31, 2025

rent-controls,-landlord-bashing,-and-the-same-old-mistake-–-france-shows-where-spain-and-the-uk-are-heading

France is moving to make rent controls permanent, echoing policies already unfolding in Spain and the UK – and revealing how Europe’s housing shortage is being made worse by the very politicians who claim to be fixing it.

Rent controls are often presented as a necessary response to a housing “emergency”. But as a Le Figaro news story makes clear, this is not just a Spanish experiment gone wrong. France is now debating whether to make rent controls permanent and nationwide, while the UK continues down a parallel path of tighter regulation and higher costs for private landlords.

The pattern is depressingly familiar.

France moves to normalise rent control

According to Le Figaro, socialist MPs have tabled a proposal to end the experimental status of rent controls and extend them to all “stressed” housing areas across France. The policy, initially due to expire in 2026, caps rent increases and is presented as a way to protect tenants from “excessive” rents.

Supporters insist the policy works. Paris city officials claim it has saved tenants thousands of euros and argue that falling rental supply cannot be blamed on rent controls, pointing to similar declines in cities without caps.

But even within government there is unease. France’s housing minister has warned against ideological dogmatism, and Jean-François Copé, mayor of Meaux, was blunter still, describing rent control as “a left-wing thing” he would never implement.

What the critics are really saying

The reader comments under the Le Figaro article are revealing, not because they are polite or measured, but because they echo what landlords and investors have been saying for years across Europe.

Many point to the cumulative effect of regulation: rent caps combined with rising property taxes, tightening energy efficiency rules, and ever more tenant-friendly legislation. Individually, each measure can be defended. Together, they crush returns, increase risk, and push private capital out of the rental market.

Some commenters put it succinctly: the problem is not greed, but supply. When landlords sell, convert properties, or simply stop investing, fewer homes are available to rent. Prices then rise, not because landlords want them to, but because demand exceeds supply.

Spain and the UK: different politics, same logic

Spain’s rent control framework, introduced under the Housing Law, follows the same script. So does the UK’s steady tightening of landlord obligations and tax treatment. In all three countries, progressive politicians present landlords as speculators to be disciplined, rather than suppliers of housing responding to incentives.

As supply stagnates or shrinks, the same politicians then blame landlords for rising rents – a price signal telling them, loudly, that there are not enough homes.

The solution no one wants to admit

The uncomfortable truth is that rent controls do not fix housing shortages. They mask symptoms while making the underlying disease worse. Sitting tenants with good profiles may benefit in the short term, but newcomers, younger households, and marginal renters pay the price through scarcity and exclusion.

The only durable solution is a large increase in supply, driven primarily by private investment. That requires deregulation, lower costs, and a political climate that treats housing providers as part of the solution, not the enemy.

What is certain is that European states are neither willing nor financially able to fund a massive expansion of social housing themselves. Doubling down on controls while strangling private supply will only make matters worse – in France, Spain, the UK, and anywhere else tempted to repeat the same mistake.

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Housing politics

Spain Asks Brussels For Permission To Curb Non-Residential Home Purchases In The Canary Islands

Published

9 hours ago

January 15, 2026

Mark Stucklin

Home » Spain asks Brussels for permission to curb non-residential home purchases in the Canary Islands

Author: Mark Stücklin
Posted on January 15, 2026

Spain has formally asked the European Union to allow limits on certain property purchases in the Canary Islands, reigniting a familiar debate over foreign demand, housing affordability, and market intervention.

The Spanish government has proposed to the European Commission that it be authorised to restrict the purchase of homes in the Canary Islands when they are not intended for residential use. The stated aim is to ease pressure on prices and improve access to housing for young people and vulnerable groups.

The backdrop is stark. Foreign buyers account for around 36% of all home purchases in the islands, while prices have risen by more than 50% over the past decade. In a territory with limited land and a fragmented geography, the government argues that non-residential demand has a disproportionate impact on affordability.

Using the EU’s ‘outermost regions’ framework

The proposal has been submitted as part of Spain’s contribution to the review of EU rules governing the so-called outermost regions, which include territories belonging to Spain, France and Portugal and benefit from special treatment under EU law.

Spain’s minister for territorial policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, said the government is seeking legislative mechanisms to limit non-residential acquisitions in order to bring prices down. The move echoes earlier lobbying by the Canary Islands government, whose president, Fernando Clavijo, has argued that foreign demand is pricing residents out of the market.

Property sector pushes back

The proposal has drawn criticism from the ABINI and other industry bodies, who warn that restricting buyers or uses will not solve the housing problem and could damage investment and legal certainty. They argue that the real issue lies on the supply side: slow planning, limited land release and years of underbuilding.

Brussels is highly unlikely to approve such restrictions, not least because they would cut across core EU principles on free movement of capital and non-discrimination. The Spanish government is well aware of this, which makes the proposal look less like a serious policy initiative and more like political theatre — a way for Madrid to be seen to be “doing something” about housing pressures in the Canary Islands, while knowing the idea will almost certainly go nowhere.

Housing politics

Catalonia Has Effectively Outlawed Mid-Term Rentals

Published

2 weeks ago

January 3, 2026

Mark Stucklin

catalonia-has-effectively-outlawed-mid-term-rentals

Catalonia says it has closed the loopholes in rent control by clamping down on seasonal rentals. In reality, it has just wiped out Barcelona’s mid-term rental market – a niche that housed professionals, students and medical visitors – and created a fresh set of problems for the city’s economy.

Catalonia’s latest housing reform, effective from 2 January 2026, marks a decisive escalation in its war on the private rental market. In trying to close loopholes in rent controls, the regional government has all but destroyed the mid-term (temporada) rental segment and brought room rentals firmly under the same regime. The result will not be cheaper or more accessible housing, but fewer homes, higher real prices, and collateral damage to Barcelona’s economy.

What has changed

The new Catalan law redefines almost all residential use as permanent housing, regardless of contract length or label. A short contract is no longer “temporary” unless the landlord can prove it is genuinely recreational or holiday-based, with documentation to back it up. Rentals for work, study, medical treatment, or similar reasons are now treated as standard residential leases, fully subject to rent controls in “stressed” areas like Barcelona.

Room-by-room rentals have also been pulled into the net. Splitting a flat into rooms no longer allows higher total income: the combined rent cannot exceed the regulated cap for the whole property.

The burden of proof now sits squarely with landlords, backed by inspection powers that have real teeth.

Why this matters: the destruction of a vital niche

Mid-term rentals were not a loophole dreamed up by greedy landlords. They were a functional niche serving real needs: project workers, visiting executives, international students, researchers, and people travelling for medical treatment. Barcelona’s universities, business schools, hospitals, and internationally oriented firms depend on this type of accommodation.

Under rent control rates, that market no longer works. Rational landlords will simply exit. Some will go long-term (reducing flexibility), some will sell, and some will operate in the grey or black economy, charging part of the rent in cash. What they will not do is offer legally compliant mid-term rentals at controlled prices that do not cover risk, hassle, and opportunity cost.

The predictable outcome is fewer homes available to exactly the people Barcelona claims it wants to attract: talent, students, professionals, and international clients.

The ideology behind the policy

This is not evidence-based housing policy. It is ideology. Rent controls failed to deliver more affordable housing, so the hard left has blamed landlords for “escaping” into temporada and room rentals. Having now crushed that segment, the underlying problem remains untouched: a chronic shortage of supply caused by years of regulatory strangulation.

As availability shrinks, real market prices will rise, access will decline, and informal practices will spread. Meanwhile, politicians will congratulate themselves for being bold and virtuous, even as conditions worsen on the ground.

Early evidence shows the damage is already being done. According to listings data from leading property portals, the supply of rental homes on the market has already fallen by around 15% since the law was passed on 18 December 2025. That decline has happened in a matter of days, before the reform has even had time to bed in. There is every reason to expect supply to shrink significantly further as landlords reassess the risks, withdraw properties, or exit the rental market altogether. In other words, the new law has already made Barcelona’s housing crisis worse — faster than even its critics might have expected.

What happens next?

That is the most interesting question. With temporada rentals effectively neutralised, who or what will be blamed next when rents remain high and homes remain scarce? Second homes? Empty flats? Foreigners? Speculators? History suggests the target will shift, but the diagnosis will not.

Barcelona’s housing problem is one of supply. This law does nothing to fix it. Instead, it dismantles a useful, economically important rental segment and replaces it with scarcity, rigidity, and unintended consequences.

Housing politics

Rent controls, landlord bashing, and the same old mistake – France shows where Spain and the UK are heading

Published

2 weeks ago

December 31, 2025

admin

The pattern is depressingly familiar.

France moves to normalise rent control

What the critics are really saying

The reader comments under the Le Figaro article are revealing, not because they are polite or measured, but because they echo what landlords and investors have been saying for years across Europe.

Spain and the UK: different politics, same logic

As supply stagnates or shrinks, the same politicians then blame landlords for rising rents – a price signal telling them, loudly, that there are not enough homes.

The solution no one wants to admit