The Basque Government has launched the procedure to designate Oiartzun as a stressed housing market zone

The Department of Housing and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government has initiated the procedure to designate Oiartzun (Gipuzkoa) as a stressed housing market zone, at the request of the city council. The order dated September 29 by Minister Denis Itxaso González —reference 2026/4369— decided to start the procedure, and it was published on October 19 in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country, issue number 199. The decision does not yet implement the designation: it has opened a public information period of 20 business days for the submission of allegations.

The procedure is based on Article 18 of Law 12/2023, of May 24, on the Right to Housing. This law assigns the power to declare stressed zones to the competent administration in the housing sector of the community, and the Basque Government holds full competence in this area, according to Article 10.31 of the Statute of Autonomy, Law 3/2015, of June 18, on Housing, and Decree 411/2024, of December 3. The file is being processed under number AAAA_ORD_6096/26_09.

The Council’s request and submitted documentation

The Oiartzun City Council requested the Department on February 26, 2026, to initiate the procedure for the declaration of the municipal stressed zone, as provided for in Article 18 of the law. Along with the request, three documents were submitted, which constitute the technical basis of the procedure:

• An analysis of the housing market in Oiartzun, as a diagnosis of the situation.
• A justifying report, reasoning the designation of the municipality.
• An action plan, containing the measures to correct the imbalances and their schedule.

The analysis and report include indicators of rental and sale prices, according to the type of housing, as well as their historical evolution and indicators of the available income of the inhabitants. These are used to measure the economic effort families must make to have a decent home.

Price increase and legal conditions

According to the report, Oiartzun meets condition b) of Article 18.3 of the law: sale prices have increased by 29.2% over five years, according to a report carried out by the Basque Housing Observatory in April 2025. This increase is above the average cumulative increase of the KPI in the Basque Country (19.4%), by more than three points. Therefore, the threshold to justify the designation is located at an increase of 22.4%, and Oiartzun exceeds that limit.

The Department considers that this condition has been sufficiently verified, and that the submitted action plan is feasible and appropriate to reverse the imbalances. Consequently, the decision to start the declaration procedure has been made.

Public information and hearing

The orders have opened two procedures simultaneously. On one hand, the procedure is made public by publishing it in the Official Gazette of the Basque Government and the Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Gipuzkoa, within a period of 20 business days, counting from the day following the last publication. On the other hand, the Oiartzun City Council is granted a hearing, within the same period of 20 business days, to present allegations and documentation.

The studies and reports justifying the designation are available at the Directorate of Housing Planning and Operational Processes of the Basque Government, at 1 Donostia-San Sebastián Street in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and on the notice board of the Government’s electronic headquarters. No appeal lies against the order, as it is a mere procedural step.

Consequences of the designations

Declaring it as a stressed zone would have a duration of three years, renewable annually, provided the conditions persist and with the justification of the measures applied. The main impact is on the rental market: the law allows limiting the price of new rentals to the last rent in effect within the last five years, and applying the limit of the reference price index system in the case of large landlords.

Previously approved designations —for example, Bergarakoa, by the order of September 11— consider a natural or legal person who owns five or more dwellings as a large landlord, and they are subject to rental limits. The declaration must be notified to the Secretary General for Urban Agenda and Housing of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, so that the resolution updating the list of stressed zones every three months can be published.

For Oiartzun, starting the procedure is not the end, but the starting point: after the public information period, the Department must write the definitive justifying report and formally approve the declaration. In the meantime, the municipality will continue to apply its current regulations, and citizens and stakeholders now have the moment to intervene in the procedure through allegations.

Fuente: Boletín Oficial del País Vasco, n.º 199, 19 de octubre de 2026, Otras disposiciones, orr. 1-4 (official reference: 2026/4369).