Castilla-La Mancha approves an urgent law on housing and developable land

The Cortes de Castilla-La Mancha have approved and President Emiliano García-Page Sánchez has promulgated, in Toledo on October 23, 2026, Law 7/2026, on urgent measures for land mobilization, the promotion of housing, and urban simplification in Castilla-La Mancha. The text is published in the Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha (Diario Oficial de Castilla-La Mancha) no. 208, of October 29, 2026, within section I (General Provisions), with the official reference [2026/7798]. The law will enter into force twenty days following its publication, that is, in mid-November.

According to its explanatory memorandum, the regulation responds to the objective of guaranteeing the right to decent housing recognized in Article 47 of the Constitution through the increase of affordable supply, land mobilization, and the reduction of urban processing deadlines. To this end, it modifies five regulatory blocks: Law 2/2002, of February 7, on public protected housing; Decree 3/2004, of January 20, on the legal regime of public protected housing; Legislative Decree 1/2023, of February 28, which approves the Recast Text of the Law on Land Management and Urban Activity (TRLOTAU); Decree 248/2004, of September 14, on planning; and Order 4/2020, of January 8, on requirements for rural land.

Public housing parks and residential heritage

Title I incorporates a new Title II into Law 2/2002 regarding public social housing parks, which may be established by both the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha) and city councils. These parks will be integrated into public land assets and will include publicly owned protected housing, for rent with an option to buy or under surface rights, with special attention to young people and vulnerable groups.

The public residential heritage of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha is now configured as separate, purpose-specific, and circular heritage: income from alienation reverts entirely to it. Its economic resources include the annual budget allocation, income from rent or transfer, coercive fines, and 80% of the amount of deposits paid for urban property lease contracts.

The explanatory memorandum announces the creation of the Registry of Protected Housing of Castilla-La Mancha, while the articles provide a new wording for the first additional provision of Law 2/2002 to strengthen the Registry of Protected Housing Applicants, a management and control instrument for allocations and the programming of private initiatives.

Administrative eviction and maximum rents

The law provides the regional Administration with mechanisms to defend this heritage: administrative termination of lease and use-assignment contracts, ex officio recovery of possession, and administrative eviction. In cases of non-payment, payment is required within fifteen days, with a subsequent period of ten days to pay or hand over the keys; if three eviction resolutions for non-payment are issued against the same person within three years, the third will not allow for stay of execution.

Maximum rents are also established for protected housing under the State Housing Plan 2026-2030 (Royal Decree 326/2026, of April 22) on public land:

• 8 euros per month per useful square meter in direct developments by administrations or public entities.
• 9 euros per month per useful square meter in developments through public-private partnerships.

Housing financed with ERDF funds and those under the state plan will have a permanent protection regime, with a minimum rental period of fifty years from the final qualification.

Urban Rehabilitation Plans and land for housing

Title II creates Urban Rehabilitation Plans (articles 18 ter to 18 quinquies of the TRLOTAU) for urban areas with substandard housing or industrial degradation. They may be promoted by administrations and private individuals; in the private case, a declaration of regional interest by the Governing Council will be required, which must resolve within two months, after a hearing with the municipalities for a minimum period of thirty days.

Furthermore, Special Plans are made more flexible to reclassify rural land as developable in municipalities with proven housing needs in depopulated areas, with deadlines reduced by half, and the change of use of private tertiary or amenity plots to protected housing is authorized without modifying the planning. In sectors of global tertiary use, residential use may not exceed 50% of the buildability; licenses must be requested within five years and works executed within a maximum of three.

Incentives, small town councils, and application

Plots destined for protected housing may increase their buildability by up to 20% and their density by up to 30%, with up to two additional floors in height, provided that the increase is entirely allocated to public protection. Town councils will have four months from the entry into force to decide, with justification, not to apply these regimes within their municipal boundaries.

The regulation includes a line of technical in-kind aid for drafting planning in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants and enables the use of regional public buildings for amenity housing for five extendable years.

The impact is twofold: private developers gain buildability and legal certainty, while city councils assume new decision-making powers and affordable housing applicants see the registry and public housing stock reinforced. The law arrives, however, with the application of urban incentives in the hands of each local government.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, no. 208, October 29, 2026, section I (General Provisions), page 37946 (official reference: 2026/7798).