Poll: 62% of Spaniards Back Rent Caps, Including 40% of PP Voters

Most people in Spain support limits on rent prices, and the support reaches into the electorate of the Partido Popular (PP), the conservative party that wants to scrap them. A YouGov survey commissioned by the Catalan daily Ara found that 62% of respondents favor rent caps and 20% oppose them. Among PP voters, 40% are in favor and 32% against.

The result matters most for renters in Catalonia. It is one of five autonomous communities where rent caps currently apply under the state housing law approved in 2023, and housing has become a central theme in the campaign for the Moncloa, the seat of Spain’s prime minister.

How each party’s voters see rent caps

Support follows party lines, though not neatly. According to Ara, 85% of respondents close to the PSOE (the Socialist party) back capping prices and so keeping the housing law. Among supporters of the Broad Front, support is almost unanimous at 96%.

Vox, the far-right party led by Santiago Abascal, is the only one of the four main parties whose voters mostly oppose the law: 45% of them are against the caps and 35% support them.

The caps are in force in Catalonia (governed by the PSC), the Basque Country (PNB), Navarre (PSOE), Asturias (PSOE) and Galicia (PP). These are the five regions that asked to apply them.

Evictions split voters more evenly

A ban on evicting vulnerable families draws less agreement than rent caps. Of those surveyed, 46% favor such a ban, 27% disagree or strongly disagree, and the remaining 27% take no clear position.

Backing for a ban reaches 68% among PSOE voters and 74% among Broad Front voters. Vox is the only one of the four main parties whose voters clearly reject stopping these evictions. Among PP voters, 41% oppose the ban, and the party also has the most undecided supporters: one in three gave no position.

The survey question used the case of Maricarmen Abascal as its example, asking whether evictions of vulnerable people should be banned to prevent cases like hers.

What it means for renters in Catalonia

For tenants in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, the election puts the current rules on the ballot. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo published his party’s electoral roadmap this week, with 14 sectoral measures. They include repealing the housing law and eliminating both the stressed areas (the districts where caps can apply) and the reference price indices that set rent limits.

The Spanish government has moved in the opposite direction. On Thursday, the permanent deputation of Congress, where progressive parties hold an absolute majority, approved what Ara calls the Maricarmen decree. It extends rental contracts for two years and suspends evictions of vulnerable people.

Housing also drove protests this week. Wednesday’s general strike and the marches held across the country called for action on housing, wages and purchasing power, Ara reported.

How the poll was carried out

YouGov interviewed 1,221 adults aged 18 and over who are eligible to vote and live in Spain. Interviews took place online between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, 2026. The sample was built to reflect the voting population by sex, age, region and vote in the 2023 elections, and results were weighted afterward. The maximum theoretical margin of error is ±2.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

Housing is expected to stay at the center of the race over the remaining fifteen days of the campaign, according to Ara.

Source: Ara