Lease decree repealed three days before its entry into force

The Permanent Deputation of the Congress of Deputies agreed on November 12, 2026, to repeal Royal Decree-Law 28/2026, of October 6, which adopted urgent measures to reinforce the stability of residential lease agreements. The agreement is published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) no. 283, of November 13, 2026, section I, page 152984, with the official reference BOE-A-2026-23754, and is signed by the President of the Chamber, Francina Armengol Socias. The regulation thus lapses three days before the entry into force it had established for itself, November 15, 2026.

The decree had been approved by the Council of Ministers on October 6, 2026, and published in the Official State Gazette no. 249, of October 7, with reference BOE-A-2026-20822 and the signatures of King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón. Its content was limited to rewriting Article 10 of Law 29/1994, of November 24, on Urban Leases, to replace the annual tacit extension with successive extensions of five or seven years.

The repeal is based on Article 86.2 of the Constitution, which allows the Permanent Deputation to rule on decree-laws when the Chambers are dissolved or their mandate has expired. This is not an isolated episode: the repealed text was a reissue of Royal Decree-Law 27/2026, of September 29 (BOE-A-2026-20385, BOE no. 243, of October 1), which the Plenary of the Congress had repealed on September 29; following the mobilizations of the weekend of October 3 to 4, an extraordinary Council of Ministers on October 5 dissolved the Chambers and called for elections, and the Executive approved a revised version of the same regulation the following day.

Successive extensions instead of termination

The sole article of the repealed decree established that, upon the expiration of the contract or any of its extensions and after a minimum duration of five years—seven if the lessor is a legal entity—the contract would be tacitly and obligatorily extended for successive periods of the same duration. Continuity became the rule, and termination, an express decision by the lessor.

The notice period regime was tightened for the owner:

• A minimum of six months’ notice to communicate non-extension, compared to the previous four.
• Two months’ notice for the lessee, without changes.
• Application of the new regime to expirations occurring after the entry into force, including those of contracts already in effect.

Mandatory compensation and excluding causes

When the landlord validly communicated their intention not to extend, they were obliged to indemnify the tenant with the greater of these amounts: twelve monthly payments calculated on the upper value of the individualized range of the dwelling in the state reference system for rental prices, or one monthly payment for each year of residence, prorated by months and days. Payment was set at the time of the delivery of the dwelling.

Indemnification was not applicable, among other scenarios, in the following:

• Need for the dwelling by the landlord as a natural person for themselves or for relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or adoption, or for the spouse after separation, divorce, or annulment.
• Lack of effective residence by the lessee for more than six months in the twelve months prior to the notification, unless there was a justified cause.
• Availability of another suitable dwelling in the same municipality.
• Signing of a new contract between the parties or rejection of a reliable lease offer with the rent adjusted to article 17.6 of the law.

Furthermore, two extraordinary extensions were maintained: one of up to one year for social and economic vulnerability accredited by a report from social services, which was mandatory for large holders, and another of up to three years in stressed residential market areas, which was preferential and not cumulative with others.

The parallel decree is indeed validated

In the same session, the Permanent Deputation validated Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, of October 6, on the protection of the social function of housing (BOE-A-2026-23755, page 152985). That text retains the extraordinary extension of up to two additional years for contracts whose mandatory extension ends before December 31, 2028, provided that the lessee is up to date with payments and has been so monthly during the previous eight months.

With the repeal, the rental of primary residences is once again governed by the wording of article 10 of Law 29/1994 resulting from the validated decree, with an annual tacit extension up to a maximum of three years after the minimum term, without indemnification for non-renewal.

The practical effect is that households facing the expiration of contracts signed since 2019 lose the guarantee of continuity and the economic compensation that the decree outlined, while owners recover the previous framework of notice and termination. The decision comes, moreover, with the Chambers dissolved and elections called, so that any new regulation of the extension regime will remain in the hands of the next legislature.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 283, November 13, 2026, Sec. I. General Provisions, p. 152984 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-23754).