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New rules for empty apartments? |
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According to the daily newspaper “20 minutos” (23 of January 2007) Barcelona is one of the provinces that has the highest number of empty properties (307.859), closely followed by Madrid (306.556) and Valencia (208.064).
To lower the amount of empty properties and to benefit the rental market, the Generalitat of Catalonia is now looking into introducing a fee of 9 euros per day to the IBI (annual property tax) for those properties that have been vacant for a certain amount of time. Over a time period of one year this annual property tax would accumulate to over 3.000 euros. Finding these empty apartments and houses will be a challenge. One of the methods suggested to locate the vacant properties is to analyse the water and electricity bills in order to verify if the property is inhabited or not. For owners that are willing to rent out their apartments there is already the possibility of receiving help from the Generalitat. This help comes in form of a guarantee that in case of unpaid bills or damage to the property, the owner will be financially covered. |
