Urduliz and Sopela have been designated as stressed housing market areas.

Boletín Oficial del País Vasco (BOPV), in issue 154, of August 14, 2026, has published two orders declaring Urduliz and Sopela as tense housing market areas. The orders were signed on July 27, 2026, by Minister Denis Itxaso González, on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, based on Article 18 of Ley 12/2023 (the Right to Housing Law of May 24), and they will cap the rent of new rental contracts in both municipalities.

The procedure was requested by the municipalities themselves: the Sopela City Council on January 8, 2026, and the Urduliz City Council on February 9, 2026. The initiation order is dated June 5, 2026; it was published in the BOPV and in the Official Gazette of Bizkaia (BOB) in issue 112 (June 16, 2026), with a period of 20 working days for submitting allegations. Once the period elapsed, no allegations were submitted, and the files were processed under codes AAAA_ORD_3172/26_09 (Urduliz) and AAAA_ORD_3704/26_09 (Sopela).

In both cases, the supporting memorandum has verified section b) of Article 18.3 of Ley 12/2023: the purchase or rental price of housing, in the five years preceding the declaration, has grown by more than three percentage points above the cumulative CPI growth of the autonomous community. The declaration also includes a specific plan, which will include measures and a calendar to correct imbalances.

Rent caps in new contracts

Paragraph 6 of Article 17 of Ley 29/1994 (the Urban Leases Law of November 24, LAU) will apply to new contracts: the rent may not exceed the last rent in force for the same dwelling in the last five years, after applying the annual update clause of the previous contract, and no fees or expenses not included in the previous contract may be charged to the tenant. A maximum increase of 10% is allowed in the following cases:

• Completion of rehabilitation work two years before the contract, in accordance with Article 41.1 of the IRPF regulations.
• Rehabilitation or improvement works that verify a 30% saving in non-renewable primary energy.
• Duly verified accessibility improvements.
• A contract of ten years or more, or a clause allowing the tenant to extend for ten years.

Furthermore, paragraph 7 establishes a stricter limit for large landlords: if the lessor is a large landlord, the rent of the new contract may not exceed the maximum price of the reference price index system. The same limit will apply to dwellings that have not had a rental contract in the last five years, if included in the quarterly resolution of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.

Definition of large landlords

According to article 3.k) of Law 12/2023, a large property owner is a natural or legal person who owns five or more dwellings, or more than 1,500 m² of built residential area, excluding garages and storage rooms. Dwellings owned by public administrations, their instrumental entities, or majority-owned companies are exempt.

Validity and appeals

The declaration has a validity period of three years and may be extended annually by following the same procedure, provided the conditions persist. The order will be notified to the Secretaría General de Agenda Urbana y Vivienda, and published in the BOPV and BOB. It exhausts the administrative route, and the following appeals are available:

• Appeal for reconsideration, within one month, before the same body.
• Contentious-administrative appeal, within two months, before the corresponding section of the contentious-administrative division of the Court of First Instance.

The declaration directly affects the rental market of the two towns and all future contracts: for three years, the increase in new rents will be limited, and in the case of large property owners, the reference price index will set the maximum rent. The measure is situated within the state framework established by Law 12/2023, and aims to protect access to housing, to address price pressure in those two coastal towns.

Source: Official Gazette of the Basque Country (BOPV), Issue No. 154, August 14, 2026, Other provisions – Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, pp. 1-6 (official reference: 2026/3609 and 2026/3610).