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The legislation, which was introduced in Congress on Friday, was divided into two separate decrees.
The first decree includes the suspension of evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, a two-year extension for rental contracts that expire before 2028, tax increases for tourist apartments, and a restriction on the purchase of residential properties by so-called “vulture funds”.
The second decree includes the automatic renewal of leases, a major demand of many on the left and the tenants’ union.
The deputies rejected the first decree with 178 against 172 votes and voted against the second with 184 against 166.
Before the vote, the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox had already said they would vote against the two initiatives, leaving the minority government dependent on the support of smaller nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country.
However, on the eve of the parliamentary session, the centre-right, pro-independence Together for Catalonia (JxCat) had signaled its opposition to both laws, condemning them to failure.
Sánchez’s ruling coalition quickly drafted the decree laws in an effort to defuse the housing protests that were sparked when 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted in September.
The social backlash led to the company that owns Abascal’s apartment, Urbagestión, negotiating her return to the apartment at a lower rent. However, the protests continued.
