The price of rent and its political management

Here is a summary of the quasi-decrees on residential renting that have been passed and struck down from the end of 2018 to the present day.

What a 2019 we are having in the rental residential! The Spanish Government and the Generalitat de Catalunya have turned the residential rental market into a kind of sadistic "witch train": a scary attraction where at the end they give you a balloon that bursts before it should and ends up making most users cry. The chronology is as follows:

• 14 December 2018: The Council of Ministers approves a Royal Decree-Law on urgent measures to improve access to housing and promote affordable rentalsThe decree changes some fundamental regulations of residential leases, such as the duration of contracts or who has to pay the fees of real estate agencies, depending on whether the lessor is a private individual or a company. The decree catches us all by surprise and we are all rushing to update contract models because everything is for "right now". Merry Christmas!
• 22 January 2019: Congress of Deputies rejects the Decree. All to rescue the old model contracts and "nothing has happened".
• 1 March 2019: Government finalises rent reform and establishes a rent indexincorporating some changes that should allow it the necessary support for its definitive approval. We rescued and updated the model contract that we had created in December, updating some details and we wonder if this time it will be definitive or if we will have to rescue the 2013 model again.
• 5 March 2019: The Generalitat de Catalunya approves the decree-law on urgent measures to improve access to housing which obliges the agencies to advertise their offer of flats incorporating a reference price obtained by means of a "Reference Index" that they draw up and which gives results that are sometimes quite absurd. In addition, the price according to the index will have to be included in the lease contract, although it is not specified what it will be used for. That wicked witch... We update the website and, once again, the model contract.
• 10 April 2019: The Parliament of Catalonia does not validate the decree. The "Reference Index" no longer has to be published. Updated website and model contract.
• 21 May 2019: The Generalitat de Catalunya goes on the attack again with a new decree-law to limit rental prices and apply the Reference Index, but this time with concrete proposals that radically regulate prices, which makes everyone's hair stand on end because if the decree ends up being approved (this time we have learned that decrees are the witch's fright, but that until it is approved by Parliament or Congress, we should not try to pass it with our eyes closed). This time we did not update anything, but we did send a consignment of painkillers attached by email to all our owner-clients.

It is difficult to predict what lies at the end of the tunnel of this residential rent witch train. Is it better to go with your eyes open or closed? What I can already take for granted is that it will be a scary ride where no one will come out of it enchanted.