Zaragoza.- The Delegation of the Government of Spain in Aragón has appealed to the High Court of Justice of Aragón (TSJA) the decision of the Autonomous Government not to process any request to declare residential market areas tensioned in Aragón, even if a city council considers that it has a problem of access to housing and requests that its situation be studied.
The appeal maintains that this decision nullifies in Aragón a tool provided by the State Housing Law to act in municipalities with special risk of insufficient supply of housing at affordable prices. “The Government of Aragón has not only decided not to declare any area stressed, but directly refuses to study if any municipality meets the legal requirements for it,” explained the delegate of the Government of Spain in Aragón, Fernando Beltrán.
Beltrán has criticized the Government of Aragón for a housing policy “that confuses building housing with guaranteeing the right to have it.” “It lacks an ambitious strategy of affordable rent: it does not act either in the face of stressed areas or abusive rents, or in the face of temporary rent, or in the face of tourist housing or empty housing, it does not propose a sufficiently ambitious expansion of the public rental park and, in addition, it allows protected housing to lose that qualification over time,” he added. “Having a decent home cannot be a privilege for a few, but it must be a right for everyone and, with these measures, we are a little further from achieving it,” he insisted.
The challenge focuses on the formula chosen by the Government of Aragon to keep the applications blocked: the agreement establishes that they will not be processed until there are “scientific reports” that contradict the negative effects attributed to the stressed areas. But it does not clarify what should be understood by scientific report, who should prepare it, with what methodology, what effects should be analyzed and when that condition will be met.
The result, according to the appeal, is that there is no certain time limit for lifting the ban: a condition that no one knows how or when it could be met, which generates a situation of indetermination incompatible with legal certainty.
The appeal also questions how the decision was made. The agreement of the Government of Aragon was approved without a record of hearing or public information, despite its consequences for citizens and municipalities. The Delegation considers this absence particularly serious because the measure directly affects local entities: it is the municipalities that face specific problems in their housing markets and those that are now left without an effective possibility to raise these procedures.
Law 12/2023, for the right to housing, does not establish an automatic declaration of stressed areas: it requires studying the circumstances of each territory and justifying the decision with objective data. The assumptions justifying a declaration include that the average cost of the mortgage or rent, together with basic expenses and supplies, exceeds 30% of the average household income, or that the purchase or rental price has grown in the previous five years by at least three points above the regional CPI. The statement enables measures such as rent limitations on new rental contracts and tax benefits for landlords.
The appeal does not request that any area under tension be declared automatically in Aragon. What is in question is that the Autonomous Government has decided that none can even be studied, regardless of the evolution of the price of housing or the situation of each municipality.
The Delegation further recalls that article 47 of the Constitution obliges the public authorities to promote the conditions necessary to give effect to the right to decent and adequate housing, and considers that this anticipated and general exclusion undermines the effectiveness of State housing legislation.
Along these lines, Beltrán has insisted that “the fact that having a decent home has become an almost impossible aspiration is a tremendous injustice and we must all work to reverse this situation.” “The Government of Spain is clear on this. We have to do much more, but we are going in the right direction”, he added and recalled that the new State Housing Plan has a total investment planned for Aragon amounting to 266 million euros.