Article 86.2 of the Constitution requires Congress to decide on validating or repealing a decree-law within 30 days. Both repeal resolutions, signed by Congress President Francina Armengol Socias, appeared in BOE no. 245 of 2 October (BOE-A-2026-20526 for Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 and BOE-A-2026-20527 for Real Decreto-ley 27/2026). Congress had not yet published the vote tallies when this was written. Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 had been in force since 1 October, and Real Decreto-ley 27/2026 since 2 October, the day of the vote. How a renewal notice, a suspension or any other step taken in those days is treated is a question for a lawyer in Spain.

Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 appeared in BOE no. 241 of 30 September 2026 (BOE-A-2026-20266) and took effect on 1 October under its final provision eleven, except where a provision set another date. Real Decreto-ley 27/2026 appeared in BOE no. 243 of 1 October (BOE-A-2026-20385) and took effect on 2 October under its final provision two. Each repeal resolution states only that Congress, in that day's session and under Article 86.2, agreed to repeal the decree. Neither sets a separate date of effect, mentions steps taken while the decree applied or says which wording of the Urban Leases Act applies now. Which text governs a given lease is a question for a lawyer in Spain.

This piece covers the decrees' rules on leases, evictions, purchases by property-buying entities, short-let VAT, IBI surcharges and SOCIMIs; Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 also contained other tax and financial measures that fell with it, including changes to landlords' income tax (Article 6), new maximum coefficients for the municipal capital gains tax from 1 December 2026 (Article 10) and the Financia Europa savings and investment account (Title VI).

The sections below set out what the two decrees provided while in force, not current law.

Lease renewal under Real Decreto-ley 27/2026, as enacted

The decree's single article rewrote Article 10 of the Urban Leases Act (Ley 29/1994). Under its sole transitional provision, the new Article 10 was to apply only to lease expiries after 3 October 2026, the day after the decree took effect on 2 October. The repeal on 2 October came before that date, so no lease expiry fell under the renewal rules below.

  • Automatic renewal. Once a habitual-residence lease had run at least five years, or seven where the landlord was a legal person, it was to renew compulsorily at each expiry for further five or seven year periods unless one side gave notice not to renew (Article 10.1).
  • Notice. The landlord was to give at least six months' notice before the expiry date, and the tenant at least two months' (Article 10.1).
  • Indemnity. A landlord who validly declined to renew was to pay the tenant at least 12 months' rent of a comparable home. It was to be calculated on the state rental reference index where possible, never below one month's rent per year of residence, and paid on handover. No indemnity was to be due where the tenant qualified for a statutory extension the landlord had to accept, even unrequested, and a buyer taking over the lease was to take over the indemnity (Article 10.1).
  • Exceptions. Article 10.2 listed the cases in which no indemnity was to be due. These were exceptions to the indemnity, not to the right to decline renewal, and were to be set out expressly and in writing in the notice. They were an individual landlord needing the home for themselves, relatives to the second degree or a spouse after a final separation, divorce or annulment ruling, with the indemnity due if the home was not occupied within three months; a tenant absent without justified cause for more than six of the previous 12 months or with another suitable home in the same municipality; a new habitual-residence lease between the parties; a tenant who rejected a formal offer of a new five or seven year lease at an Article 17.6 rent; and a landlord with proven vulnerability that should prevail.

Even after a valid non-renewal notice, a large landlord was to grant a tenant who proved social and economic vulnerability, with a social services report from the past year, an extension of up to one year unless a new lease was signed (Article 10.5). In a declared stressed residential market zone, after a valid non-renewal notice, any landlord was to accept a tenant's request to extend in yearly periods for up to three years, unless the parties agreed other terms, signed a new lease within the zone's rent limits or the landlord had given Article 9.3 notice of own or family need (Article 10.6).

The sole transitional provision was to apply the new Article 10 to leases in force on 2 October 2026, for expiries after 3 October 2026, with four months' notice enough where fewer than six months remained. Leases in a tacit extension under the old Article 10.1 were to finish it under the old rules first, and leases in Civil Code tacit renewal were to come under the new rules from the first expiry more than four months after 2 October.

Rent updates and the extraordinary extension, while in force

Rent updates through 2027. Final provision six of Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 covered leases whose annual rent update fell between 1 October 2026 and 31 December 2027. A rent above the state reference index maximum could not rise. Otherwise the increase was whatever the parties newly agreed, and only without agreement was it capped at 2 per cent.

Extraordinary extension. Final provision five covered habitual-residence leases in force on 1 October 2026 whose Article 9.1 mandatory extension ended before 31 December 2028, or whose tacit extension or Civil Code tacit renewal ended. The date was written against the Article 9.1 period only. A tenant up to date with rent for the previous eight months could require an extension in yearly periods of up to two years on the same terms. The landlord was not bound where the parties agreed other terms or a new contract, where Article 9.3 notice of a real need to use the home had been given, or where a new lease was signed at a rent at least 5 per cent lower. Additional provision one of Real Decreto-ley 27/2026 added that this extension was not to apply where the new Article 10.1 renewal did, and that ending a lease after it without an Article 10.2 cause was to trigger the indemnity.

Temporary and room lets. Under Article 3 of Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, a temporary lease needed a justified, provable reason for the tenant's absence from home and had to run more than 31 days and generally no more than 12 months. An unjustified run past 12 months, or more than two consecutive temporary leases between the same parties, turned the first contract into a habitual-residence lease. Simultaneous room lets could not total more than the rent for the whole home.

Evictions, while in force

Fund-type claimants. Article 2.1 suspended, with an end date of 31 December 2030, evictions sought by entities that bought property, or defaulted mortgage portfolios, clearly below market appraisal value to avoid the social function of housing or to maximise profit through disproportionate rents, resale prices or non-residential use. It excluded public housing bodies and covered vulnerable occupants without alternative housing, even after judgment.

Other claimants. Article 2.2 extended suspension to 31 December 2030 for other claimants too, where the new non-payment procedure did not apply. Where a vulnerable occupant had no alternative housing, the court was to ask the regional housing authority what it could offer and suspend the case if there was none, for up to three years with reviews every 12 months. The authority was to compensate an individual landlord, or a company letting at affordable or social rents, up to unpaid rent and utilities, and the tenant still owed the rent. There was no suspension where the landlord's own vulnerability should prevail, unless the landlord was a company or an individual large landlord, and the tenant's economic vulnerability did not prevail against an individual landlord owning two homes or fewer.

Non-payment cases. Article 5.Dos added Article 22.6 to the Civil Procedure Act. In non-payment evictions with an economically vulnerable tenant, outside the Article 2.1 case, the public authority had two months to offer alternative housing or pay the sums owed, with the case suspended meanwhile. If it did neither, it took over the tenant's debt and there was no eviction.

The repeal resolution does not address suspensions ordered while the decree applied, a question for a lawyer in Spain.

Sales to property-buying entities, while in force

Article 1 was not a ban on buying by funds. With an end date of 31 December 2028, any entity whose corporate purpose included acquiring property was limited in acquiring a home free of charge or for less than 70 per cent of its market appraisal value. It did not apply to homes destined for at least five years of affordable or social housing or listed social uses, to buyers with a code of good practice signed with the housing authority, to deeds executed before 1 October 2026, or to court or mortgage enforcement.

Short lets and local tax, as enacted

VAT. From 1 December 2026, Article 7 was to bring into VAT furnished lets where the landlord provided hotel-type services such as cleaning or laundry, or where the let to one tenant lasted 30 nights or less, with a short let in the landlord's own habitual home staying exempt. Those lets were to pay the reduced 10 per cent rate under Article 91.Uno of the VAT Act (Ley 37/1992). The repeal on 2 October came before that start date.

IBI surcharges. Article 8 allowed councils in stressed residential market zones to adopt a property tax (IBI) surcharge on homes used as tourist accommodation of up to 50 per cent, 100 per cent for owners of two or more and 150 per cent for owners of four or more.

SOCIMIs, while in force

Article 9 of Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 did not create a new SOCIMI tax. It raised the rate of an existing special levy, the gravamen especial on profit a SOCIMI kept rather than paid out, which Ley 11/2021 had added as Article 9.4 of the SOCIMI law (Ley 11/2009) at 15 per cent from 2021. That levy fell only on retained profit from income that had not been taxed at the general corporate tax rate, and not on gains from property or share sales still within the three-year reinvestment period of Article 6.1.b. The decree kept the 15 per cent rate and set the levy at 25 per cent where the undistributed profit derived from letting homes or from any other letting or granting of the use of residential property, tourist and short-stay lets included. The company could halve the 25 per cent levy if more than 80 per cent of its rented homes were affordable, or cancel it if it also reinvested that undistributed profit in affordable rentals within three years under the new Article 9.5, a separate period from the Article 6.1.b one. For tax periods begun in 2026 and still open on 1 October, the affordable share needed for either reduction was above 60 per cent, and for periods starting in 2027 above 70 per cent. Only homes in Spain counted toward the affordability test.

The levy sat with the company and was treated as corporate income tax payable. The decree left untouched the Article 6 minimum payout rules and the Article 10 taxation of a holder's dividends and share-sale gains, so for an investor the change bore on profit the SOCIMI kept, not on what it paid out or on a sale of the shares. How the repeal bears on a 2026 tax period that was open while the decree applied is a question for a tax adviser in Spain.

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Sources

Sources read 3 October 2026.