Spain's Congress has rejected two emergency housing decrees. The vote exposed the government's fragile majority and left renters facing fresh uncertainty as parties demand a different plan.
The first decree failed by 172 votes to 178. The second fell by 166 to 184. Spain's Congress rejected both measures on 2 October 2026.
PSOE and Sumar backed the texts. Partido Popular and Vox opposed them. Junts per Catalunya also voted against the decrees after demanding a new proposal based on its own parliamentary initiative.
That defeat mattered.
Junts per Catalunya has only seven deputies in Congress, but its votes can determine whether key government initiatives pass or fail.
Reuters and other news agencies reported the same results: the first measure lost 178 to 172, and the second lost 184 to 166. The votes blocked plans to limit rent increases and extend protections for tenants. They also put new pressure on Pedro Sánchez over the strength of his parliamentary support and the possibility of early general elections.
Junts announced its position on Thursday night, before the vote. Its spokesperson Miriam Nogueras said the government had subjected the party to ideological pressure from both extremes. She argued that the decrees would not solve the housing crisis.
Junts said speculative investors would remain active and evictions would continue. Reuters reported that the party also warned the measures could reduce the supply of rental homes, push prices higher and make access to housing harder. Junts demanded a revised text before it would offer support.
Outside Congress, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the request of the Sindicato de Inquilinas. People in the public gallery protested after the vote. They accused so-called vulture funds of controlling Parliament.
The Associated Press reported that tenant marches were taking place around the Madrid parliament as lawmakers voted. The housing crisis has moved beyond campaign debate. It is now driving street protests.
One of the rejected measures was designed to allow rental contracts to be renewed automatically and indefinitely, a provision that had become a particular obstacle to parliamentary approval.
The government drafted the decrees during a week of demonstrations after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old tenant. She had lived in the same rented home for seven decades. Police took her to hospital after removing her from the property, although she was later allowed to return.
On 26 September, protesters set up a camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol. The case became a visible sign of the pressure on Spain's housing market. Reuters linked the eviction to the renewed street mobilisation around housing affordability.
The larger decree would have limited rent increases and extended some rental contracts. It would also have regulated seasonal leases, banned evictions until 2030, restricted speculative purchases by vulture funds and offered incentives to landlords who cut rents.
The second text contained one measure: automatic renewal of rental contracts. Together, the two decrees went beyond a simple rent cap. They also sought to protect vulnerable tenants, regulate short-term or seasonal arrangements and curb purchases by investment funds.
Pedro Sánchez unexpectedly addressed Congress during the final stage of the debate. He urged lawmakers to think about ordinary residents rather than party talking points.
Sánchez acknowledged that the decrees would not solve the housing crisis. He said they could reduce its effects. He did not mention early elections if the measures failed.
The opposition attacked both the substance of the decrees and the approval process. PP representative Juan Bravo said the government was trying to repair in days what it had damaged over eight years. He said the central problem was insufficient construction.
Vox warned that the measures would further reduce the supply of homes. Officials had no agreement.
The Sindicato de Inquilinas called the package a minimum step against high rents and property speculation. The group said Parliament was defending property owners' interests above tenants' lives.
The Association of Rental Housing Owners, known as Asval, took the opposite view. It argued that the decrees threatened legal certainty, property rights, business freedom and the ban on retroactive restrictions of rights.
José Luis Escrivá, governor of the Banco de España, also warned that the government's housing measures could have negative effects on an already strained market. Spain is estimated to lack around 750,000 homes. Public housing accounts for only 2% of the housing stock, compared with a 7% European average.
Many empty homes are outside the urban centres where demand is highest, especially Madrid and Barcelona. That leaves the shortage concentrated in the places where housing costs are under the most pressure.
Construction faces several limits. Major cities have little available land. Material costs have risen. The sector also lacks workers.
The Instituto Nacional de Estadística reported that house prices rose by more than 12% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. Rents increased by 4.2% over the same period.
The numbers explain why the package mattered to tenants. They also show why emergency decrees could not settle a problem tied to supply, prices and weak public housing.
The vote defeated two texts. It also exposed the gap between immediate tenant protections and the longer construction effort Spain needs. Sánchez's government failed to secure a majority. The unresolved housing bill now carries a political cost.
Reuters and the Associated Press said the defeat had intensified doubts about the durability of Sánchez's parliamentary majority. Discussion of a possible snap election has returned.
