Published 8 October 2026

Spain's rental decrees: what was rejected, what applies since 8 October 2026, and what is still to be voted on

Checked against the BOE on 08-10-26. We will update this post after the vote.

Since 30 September 2026, four housing decrees have been published. Two are gone, one is in force and one is due to start in November. If you let a home on the Costa del Sol, rent one, or manage lets for owners abroad, this is where each stands. The BOE is Spain's official gazette. A "Real Decreto-ley" (RDL) is a decree with the force of law that the Government can issue in an emergency. Congress must then validate it or repeal it.

The short answer

• Rejected: RDL 26/2026 and RDL 27/2026. Congress repealed both on 02-10-26.
• In force now: RDL 29/2026, since 08-10-26. It amends the Urban Leases Act (the LAU, Law 29/1994) and adds tax measures. It still needs validation.
• Due on 15-11-26: RDL 28/2026, which rewrites how a lease renews after year five. It also still needs validation.
• Not yet voted: as of 08-10-26 we found no vote held and none scheduled.

Timeline

RDL 26 was in force for about a day. RDL 27 was repealed on the day it took effect.

How the vote works

Article 86.2 of the Constitution says Congress must debate a decree-law and vote on it within thirty days of its promulgation, and must say expressly whether it validates or repeals it. Article 78 says the Diputación Permanente, the standing committee that acts for Congress when it is not sitting, keeps its functions after the Cortes are dissolved. The preamble of RDL 28 says the Government may still issue decree-laws after a dissolution, and article 78 is why the Diputación Permanente can validate them. The thirty days run from promulgation, so the window closes in early to mid November, depending on how the days are counted.

Moncloa.com reported on 07-10-26 that the committee meets on 16-10-26 and that the housing decrees were not on its reported agenda. On 08-10-26 it reported that the PNV party will back RDL 29 and not RDL 28. Those are press reports of positions, not a result.

The rules that apply since 8 October

RDL 29 rewrites much of the LAU. Some of the rules below are new, and some were already law and have only been tightened. The last column says which.

Which leases these rules reach depends on when the lease was signed. Leases signed before 26-05-23 keep the rules in force when they were signed, except for article 10 as introduced by the 2023 Housing Law (and as RDL 28 would rewrite it from 15-11-26), the update limit in that law's additional provision 11, and article 18.1 as now worded (transitional provision 4 of the 2023 Housing Law, as rewritten by the decree). Temporary lets signed before 08-10-26 follow their own transitional rule, set out below. For leases signed from 26-05-23 to 07-10-26, the decree does not say whether the other changes reach them. Take advice before you rely on either reading for an existing lease.

Rent updates until 31-12-27

This is disposition final sexta of the decree. It covers any LAU lease whose yearly anniversary falls between 08-10-26 and 31-12-27. The tenant can negotiate the update. If the current rent is above the applicable maximum price limit, no increase applies. The decree does not say how that limit works for a home outside a declared tensioned zone. Otherwise the increase is whatever the parties agree. If they agree nothing, it cannot exceed 2%. So 2% is a ceiling that applies only in that window and only without an agreement. The decree does not say how this fits with article 18.1, under which there is no update without an express agreement and none above the IRAV. For the earlier cap, see our rent-cap post, which covers a decree that has since been repealed.

The two-year extension request

This is disposition final quinta. It covers leases in force on 08-10-26 whose mandatory term ends before 31-12-28, and leases in a tacit extension or tacit renewal. The date limit is attached to the first case; take advice if your lease is in the second. The tenant can ask for an extraordinary extension, in yearly periods, of up to two more years, if the rent was paid in each of the previous eight months. The landlord must accept unless the parties agree other terms or a new contract, or the landlord gave valid notice under article 9.3 because they really need the home for themselves or close family. It does not apply if the parties renew at a rent at least 5% lower. In a tensioned zone, the extension in LAU article 10.3 applies first. Extension requests made under the earlier RDL 8/2026 count as validly made (transitional provision 1). If RDL 28 enters into force, its five-year renewal and this extension do not stack.

Temporary leases

A temporary lease (arrendamiento de vivienda temporal) is for a tenant who is temporarily away from their usual home for a justified and provable reason. The cause must be written into the contract, and the landlord must be able to prove it. Without it, the lease counts as a main-home lease from the day it was signed. The term must be over 31 days and, as a general rule, no more than twelve months. A lease that runs past twelve months without justification, or more than two successive contracts between the same parties for the same home, turns the first into a main-home lease. Temporary contracts signed before 08-10-26 keep the old rules until their agreed end, with no extension (transitional provision 8 of the LAU). Tourist lets are outside the LAU, and their maximum length, set by the regional tourist rules, cannot exceed 31 days (LAU article 5.e).

The tax side in brief

• Landlord income tax (IRPF). For leases signed after 01-12-26, a new scale of reductions on net rent applies. Its main tiers, from 15% up to 100%, are only for landlords who are not large holders, and depend on how the rent compares with the previous lease and the reference index, the zone and the tenant's age. Leases signed before 26-05-23 keep the reduction as it stood on 31-12-21. Leases signed from 26-05-23 up to 01-12-26 keep the rules in force on 31-12-25. A tacit extension whose five-year minimum term ends after 01-12-26 can get an 80% reduction, whenever the lease was signed, if the rent is within the reference-index limit and the landlord is not a large holder (transitional provision 38 of the IRPF law).
• Tenant deduction. 10% of the rent paid on your main home, if your tax base is below €33,007.20. The maximum base is €11,630 up to a tax base of €23,007.20, and then it tapers. For at least half the tax year, neither you nor any member of your family unit may own outright, or hold a right of use over, another home within 50 km.
• Gain on selling a home. This exemption is narrow. It covers only sales to a public body or a public-sector company whose purpose is social and affordable housing, made from 08-10-26 to 31-12-27, of a home that stood empty without a justified cause for the two years before the sale. The gain is exempt in full at a price of €200,000 or less, and partly above that, on a sliding scale that reaches zero at €800,000 ((€800,000 minus the price) divided by €600,000). A sale to a private buyer does not qualify.
• IBI surcharge on empty homes. Councils may add a surcharge to the IBI (the annual property tax) on homes left empty for more than two years without a justified cause. Outside tensioned zones, which today means the whole of Andalucía, it reaches only owners of four or more homes. The surcharge can be up to 50%, up to 100% after more than three years, and up to 50 further points for owners of two or more empty homes in the same town. It is optional, needs the council's own ordinance, and can start with the first IBI period after 08-10-26, in practice 2027. A second home counts as justified for up to four years of continuous vacancy, and so does a home offered for sale (for a year) or for rent (for six months).
• Plusvalía municipal from 01-12-26. Article 10 of the decree resets the maximum coefficients for the council tax on the land-value gain when you sell. It adds no exemption. Our plusvalía guide sets the two tables side by side.

What RDL 28 would change

RDL 28 rewrites LAU article 10, on renewal after the five-year minimum term (seven years if the landlord is a legal person). If neither side gives notice (six months for the landlord, two months for the tenant), the lease renews in successive five-year periods, or seven if the landlord is a legal person. A landlord who does not renew owes compensation: the greater of twelve months' rent at the upper value of the home's range in the state reference system, or one month's rent for each year the tenant lived there.

No compensation is due in the cases the decree lists, each of which the landlord must state expressly, in detail and in writing in the notice. They include:

• an individual landlord needs the home as a permanent home for themselves, their spouse or relatives up to the second degree. If the home is not occupied within three months, the compensation becomes due;
• the parties sign a new lease;
• the tenant could have asked for a legal extension and did not;
• the tenant has not lived in the home for more than six of the last twelve months. Justified absences for health, work, study or care do not count against the tenant;
• the tenant has another suitable home in the same municipality;
• the tenant refuses a firm offer of a new lease of at least five years, made within the notice period at a rent within the article 17.6 limits.

It is due to apply from 15-11-26 to leases whose expiry falls after that date. Leases already in an annual tacit extension under the old article 10.1 stay on it until it ends, and leases in a tacit renewal have their own transitional rule. A landlord whose lease has less than six months left on 15-11-26 may give four months' notice. Non-renewal notices validly given before publication keep their effect with no compensation. If RDL 28 is repealed before 15-11-26, none of this would apply.

What if a decree is repealed later?

The Constitution says only "validation or repeal". It does not say whether a repeal works from the start or only going forward, and we found no court ruling that settles it for leases signed while a decree was in force.

RDL 8/2026 (BOE-A-2026-6545) is the nearest precedent. It was in force from 22-03-26, and Congress repealed it by a resolution of 28-04-26 (BOE-A-2026-9359). One legal commentary, published on 12-06-26, argues that an extension claimed while the decree was valid stays activated, while a lease expiring after the repeal gave the tenant only an expectation. That is one commentator's opinion. RDL 29 itself treats earlier RDL 8 extension requests as valid. That answer covers those requests only. If RDL 29 is repealed, the effect on leases signed in the meantime is unsettled.

What to do now

• Landlords and agents: do not pass agency or contract costs to the tenant, do not ask for rent-default insurance, keep any extra guarantee within two months' rent, and sign an end-of-lease record when a tenant leaves.
• New temporary lets: write the real cause of the temporary need into the contract, and keep proof of it.
• Rent updates falling due before 31-12-27: check the lease for an express update clause and the applicable price limit before applying any increase.
• Everyone: watch for the Diputación Permanente vote. We will update this post when it happens.

Common mistakes

• "Both new decrees are in force." Only RDL 29 is. RDL 28 is due on 15-11-26.
• "RDL 26 and 27 are the law." Both were repealed on 02-10-26. Pages dated before that are out of date.
• "There is a 2% rent cap." The 2% applies only to updates falling due between 08-10-26 and 31-12-27, and only without a new agreement. Rents above the applicable price limit get no increase.
• "Rent limits only exist in tensioned zones." The caps on new rents do, but the update window to 31-12-27, the IRAV cap on successive temporary lets and the room-by-room rule apply everywhere.
• "The extension is for everyone." Only the tenant can ask, only if paid up for eight months, and only for leases reaching the end of their mandatory term before 31-12-28 or already in a tacit extension.
• "Plusvalía is abolished." It is not. Only the maximum coefficients change, from 01-12-26.
• "Sellers no longer pay tax on the gain." The new exemption covers only sales to public housing bodies of homes left empty for two years, in full up to €200,000 and in part up to €800,000.
• "The election means no vote." The Diputación Permanente keeps acting for Congress after the dissolution and until the new Cortes meet (article 78.3).

This post leaves out the eviction pause, the purchase limit for funds and large holders, the VAT changes and the platform sanctions in RDL 29. It is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Sources

Checked on 08-10-26: RDL 29/2026 (BOE-A-2026-20823); RDL 28/2026 (BOE-A-2026-20822); RDL 26/2026 (BOE-A-2026-20266); RDL 27/2026 (BOE-A-2026-20385); the repeal resolutions BOE-A-2026-20526 and BOE-A-2026-20527; the dissolution decree BOE-A-2026-20742; RDL 8/2026 (BOE-A-2026-6545); the LAU (BOE-A-1994-26003); and the Constitution, articles 78 and 86. For political positions: Moncloa.com (07-10-26 and 08-10-26). For the RDL 8 precedent: Economist & Jurist (12-06-26).