Is it a stressed zone?

What a stressed zone is

It is a municipality or neighbourhood where the regional government has declared that renting is especially difficult. The declaration lasts three years and can be extended year by year. The Ministry of Housing publishes the declared zones every quarter in the BOE, and those lists are what this tool checks.

What changes if your home is in one

While the declaration is in force, in housing contracts:

• The rent of a new contract cannot exceed the home's last rent from the past five years, once updated (article 17.6 of the LAU).
• It can only go up to 10 % higher in specific cases: a refurbishment or improvement finished in the previous two years, or a contract of ten years or more (article 17.6 of the LAU).
• The new contract cannot add charges that were not in the previous one (article 17.6 of the LAU).
• If the landlord is a large holder, the starting rent also has the cap of the reference price index system (article 17.7 of the LAU).
• When the contract ends you can ask for an extraordinary extension, year by year, of up to three more years, with exceptions (article 10 of the LAU).

Who counts as a large holder

Anyone with more than ten homes or more than 1,500 m² of residential space, not counting garages or storage rooms. Each zone's declaration can lower that to five or more homes in that zone (article 3.k of Ley 12/2023).