Spain approves one of housing decrees that triggered snap election

By Mireia Merino

MADRID, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Spanish lawmakers on Thursday approved one of two housing decrees whose rejection by parliament last month triggered a November 29 early general election, a day after Wednesday’s general strike in protest over housing costs.

• By a one-vote margin, the standing body of 69 caretaker deputies who remain in place after parliament’s dissolution passed the decree, which includes rent caps, a temporary ban on evictions and limits on corporate purchases of residential property

• The body rejected, also by one vote, another measure, sought by tenants’ associations, calling for the automatic renewal of rental contracts

• The leftist government’s measures, aimed at tackling rising housing costs, came into effect temporarily when the decrees were published in the official state gazette in early October

• Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose conservative People’s Party leads in opinion polls, said on Wednesday he would repeal the decrees if he becomes prime minister

• The opposition has argued that the measures only reduce housing supply and push up prices

(Reporting by Mireia Merino, Editing by Andrei Khalip and Tomasz Janowski)