The Basque Government opens the way to limiting rental prices in Erandio

The Basque Government has initiated the procedure for designating Erandio as a tense residential market, after verifying that the municipality of Bizkaia meets the two requirements of the Housing Act, a measure requested by the City Council on 26 August and which opens the way to limiting the price of rent, which is now in the public information phase.

The Order signed on 5 October by the Councillor for Housing and Urban Agenda, Denis Itxaso, has been published in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country, and the file will be submitted to public information for a period of twenty days from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of Bizkaia. The Erandio City Council also has this hearing period.

Law 12/2023 for the right to housing establishes two criteria for declaring a tense area of the residential market and requires compliance with at least one. The Basque Government considers that both are accredited in Erandio, according to a report by the Basque Housing Observatory dated April 2025.

On the one hand, the financial effortthat families have to make to pay for housing, including basic supplies, reaches 31.8% of average income, above the 30% threshold set by the regulations.

On the other hand, the sale price of homes has increased by 22.6% over the last five years with statistical data available, exceeding the 22.4% threshold calculated from the 19.4% increase in the consumer price index (CPI), which has increased by three points.

The declaration of Erandio as a strained zone would give rise to the application of the price restraint measures provided for in the Housing Act and, as a general rule, the income of new contracts may not exceed that of the previous contract once updated.

In addition, the price would be subject to a reference index when the owner is a large holder or the dwelling has not been rented as a habitual dwelling for the previous five years.

The regulation also provides for extraordinary extensions of leases of up to three years, and allows the limit of ten to five dwellings to be reduced from one owner to one owner as a large holder in the area indicated.

The rating would be valid for three years, renewable, and would require the development of a specific plan of measures, which the Housing Department considers "viable and appropriate".

The initiative comes in a context marked by the situation of families living in buildings known as "Los Ochos" in Erandio, where the Mosaic investment fund, which owns homes, has offered them the option of buying homes or leaving them when rental contracts expire.

On 28 September, EH Bildu's congressional deputy, Oskar Matute, went to the municipality to express his support for families and called for an "ambitious" housing decree banning evictions of vulnerable families and regulating seasonal rents.

Likewise, Denis Itxaso announced that it has ordered to expedite the process of designating Erandio as a tense zone. 

In Bizkaia, Bilbao, Barakaldo and District 2 of Galdakao have already been declared as a strained residential market area.

In the Basque Country as a whole, around 20 municipalities had this rating in April, which is 1.1 million inhabitants (54% of the population), according to data from the Basque Government.