The Mendata City Council has approved the rent control ordinance to limit prices

The Mendata City Council has approved the municipal priced housing ordinance to establish a new regime for affordable housing in the town. The regulations limit prices and the income of beneficiaries, and it has been published in issue number 180 of the Boletín Oficial de Bizkaia, on September 21, 2026, in section II (official reference: BOB-2026a180-(II-4907)). The ordinance was signed by Mayor Joseba Mallea Lamikiz in Mendata on September 16, 2026, and will enter into force the day after the definitive approval and the publication of the text.

Concept of priced housing and legal basis

The ordinance regulates the figure known as Municipal Priced Housing (VTM), as developed in the Law 2/2006, of June 30, on Land and Urbanism of the Basque Country. VTMs shall be those dwellings qualified as such by the City Council because their sale or rental price is limited; this qualification also extends to associated garage and storage room units.

Three cases fall under this regime:

• Dwellings promoted on land specifically qualified for this purpose by the planning.
• Those built on free land under an agreement between the promoter and the City Council.
• Those built on City Council-owned land, built or assigned as priced land or housing.

Two types of regimes and price limits

VTMs are divided into two classes:

• General Regime Municipal Priced Housing (VTMG): The City Council has the freedom to establish the parameters for the price and the income of the beneficiaries; the Mendata City Council Plenary will specify these in each call, along with the lottery conditions.
• Special Regime Municipal Priced Housing (VTME): official priced housing may be substituted to meet the minimum standards established by law.

In the case of rental, the annual rent for general regime housing cannot exceed 2.5% of the maximum sale price.

Beneficiary conditions and income limits

To be an awardee, the applicant must be of legal age or emancipated, prove the need for housing, meet the income limits, and be registered in the Basque Country. The conditions for housing need state that no member of the cohabitation unit may have had a dwelling in ownership, full ownership, overriding right, or usufruct in the previous two years.

Exceptions are listed as follows:

• Those whose housing has been destroyed and ordered to be isolated.
• Housing involved in an expropriation file.
• Those who do not meet the habitability conditions of Decree 317/2022.
• Housing assigned to one spouse as a result of separation or divorce.
• Those with accessibility problems, or the owner is over 55 years old.
• Housing with less than 20 square meters of usable space per person.
• Ownership shares up to 50%, when the value is below 100,000 euros.

Regarding income, the applicant or cohabitation unit must verify that the total annual income from the last fiscal event does not exceed 80,000 euros. For the calculation, Decreto 39/2008 de 4 de marzo de 2008 will be applied, and no minimum income is established.

Qualification, right of first refusal, and right of reversion

The qualification will be carried out by the Plenary of the Mendata City Council, and it will be recorded in the property registry as affordable housing. The qualification will determine the maximum sale price of each dwelling, including garages and storage rooms, as well as the number of dwellings aimed at large families and people with disabilities.

Qualified dwellings will have a permanent protected nature and will always be linked to the maximum price and the right of first refusal and reversion in favor of the City Council; the right of reversion, subsidiarily, will be in favor of the General Administration of the Basque Autonomous Community. The right of first refusal must be exercised within a period of two months from the day following the entry of the notification in the registry. All contracts must have a municipal visa, and having the visa will be essential for entry into the property registry.

Adjudication and occupancy obligation

The adjudication procedure will be carried out through a public call, with the bases published in the Boletín Oficial de Bizkaia journal, and a registry of interested parties will be compiled to conduct a draw. The City Council may entrust the procedure to the Basque Government through agreements, or may use the Etxebide system to compile and update the list of applicants. A person who refuses an affordable dwelling will not be able to enter the registry of applicants until five years have passed.

The dwellings must be the habitual and permanent residence of the owners or tenants; they may under no circumstances be assigned to others, kept vacant, or used as a second residence. After signing the sale deed or rental contract, the person must move into the dwelling and register their census there within two months. Failure to comply with this obligation will give the City Council, or subsidiarily the Basque Government, the right to exercise the right of first refusal and reversion, and, furthermore, an economic penalty of 30% of the deed value of the dwelling for each month of delay will be imposed.

Conclusion

The ordinance will enter into force the day following its definitive approval and the publication of the text in the Boletín Oficial de Bizkaia journal, and it will also extend its effects to urban planning plans previously processed or approved, provided they include reserves for affordable housing. For the citizens of Mendata, the new regulations regulate access to affordable housing through the control of prices and income, and establish the figure of public protected housing as a permanent feature in the town.

Source: Boletín Oficial de Bizkaia, number 180, September 21, 2026, section II, pp. 1-6 (official reference: BOB-2026a180-(II-4907)).