17 December 2025 · Neus Vallara
What Is a Large Property Holder under Law 12/2023 on the Right to Housing and How This Concept Has Been Defined in Stressed Residential Market Areas
What Is a Large Property Holder under Law 12/2023 on the Right to Housing and How This Concept Has Been Defined in Stressed Residential Market Areas
17 December, 2025
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Real Estate
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Neus Vallara
!Zonas de mercado residencial tensionado
The definition of large property holder that some Autonomous Communities have tailored in their declarations of stressed residential housing market areas, pursuant to the powers conferred on them by Law 12/2023 of 24 May on the Right to Housing, has given rise to certain doubts.
What happens if a natural or legal person owns a certain number of properties within the same Autonomous Community, but these are located in different stressed residential housing market areas? How should such properties be counted in order to determine whether a person qualifies as a large property holder? In this article, we provide a legal analysis of this issue in order to clarify these doubts.
What is a large property holder and how is it defined under the Law on the Right to Housing?
Article 3(k) of Law 12/2023 of 24 May on the Right to Housing provides a general definition of what constitutes a large property holder for the purposes of that law as “a natural or legal person who owns more than ten urban residential properties or a built residential surface area exceeding 1,500 m², in all cases excluding garages and storage rooms.” Accordingly, if any natural or legal person meets either of these requirements, regardless of the Autonomous Community in which the properties are located or whether or not they are situated in a stressed residential housing market area, they will be considered a large property holder, with the legal consequences this entails.
In addition to this general definition applicable throughout the national territory, Article 3(k) also empowers the Autonomous Communities to tailor the definition of large property holder in declarations of stressed residential housing market areas. To this end, they may reduce the number of properties required to qualify as such to five urban residential properties located within the relevant area, provided that this is duly justified in the explanatory report that must be drawn up prior to the declaration.
With regard to this explanatory report, Article 19.2 of Law 13/2023 of 24 May establishes that the report shall “(…) define the criteria for considering a person to be a large housing property holder in the stressed residential housing market area, based on their potential influence, by virtue of the volume of residential properties they own in the rental market of that area, which, on the basis of the definition of large property holder set out in Article 3 of this Law, may incorporate additional criteria consistent with the reality and characteristics of the area or in accordance with the specific regulations of the competent housing authority.”
From the above provisions, it can only be interpreted that the tailoring of the definition of large property holder down to a minimum of five dwellings:
i) may only be carried out with respect to the specific territorial scope defined in the declared stressed residential housing market area; and
ii) under no circumstances are Autonomous Communities allowed, under Law 12/2023, to tailor the concept of large property holder in such a way that the five properties may be located in any stressed residential housing market area.
Furthermore, we reiterate that the tailoring of the concept must be duly justified in the specific explanatory report accompanying the declaration of a particular area. Therefore, it is clear that the Law does not support any interpretation that would allow properties to be located in any stressed residential housing market area.
Which Autonomous Communities have declared stressed residential housing market areas?
To date, only four Autonomous Communities have declared stressed residential housing market areas. In those cases where the definition of large property holder has been tailored by reducing the number of residential properties to five, the only possible conclusion is that only properties located within the specific territorial scope of the declared area may be counted for this purpose. The number of residential properties located in another stressed residential housing market area declared by the same Autonomous Community cannot be aggregated. Let us examine each case in turn:
Catalonia
Catalonia was the pioneering Autonomous Community when, on 13 March 2024, it declared a first stressed residential housing market area by means of Resolution TER/800/2024, which includes a total of 140 municipalities.
Subsequently, on 1 July, a new stressed residential housing market area was declared by Resolution TER/2408/2024, comprising a total of 131 municipalities.
The explanatory reports for both areas establish that a large property holder is any natural or legal person who owns five or more urban residential properties located within the stressed residential housing market area, which comprises 140 municipalities — explanatory report relating to the stressed residential housing market area declared by Resolution TER/800/2024 —which comprises 131 municipalities — explanatory report relating to the stressed residential housing market area declared by Resolution TER/2408/2024.
For their part, the legal grounds of both resolutions state that “Article 3(k) of Law 12/2023 itself provides that the definition of large property holder may be tailored in the declaration of stressed residential housing market areas to include those owners of five or more urban residential properties located within that area, where this is duly justified by the Autonomous Community in the corresponding explanatory report.”
Likewise, in their operative sections, both declarations identically include the tailored definition of large property holder:
“2. To consider as a large property holder, in accordance with Article 3(k) of Law 12/2023, any natural or legal person who owns five or more urban residential properties located within the previously declared stressed residential housing market area.”
From all of the above, there is no doubt that, for example, if a natural or legal person owns a total of six residential properties in Catalonia, with two of them located in Santa Coloma de Cervelló — a municipality included in the stressed residential housing market area declared by Resolution TER/800/2024 — and four of them in Torroella de Montgrí — a municipality included in the stressed residential housing market area declared by Resolution TER/2408/2024 — that person will not be considered a large property holder in either of the two areas, since the six residential properties do not meet the requirement of being located within the same stressed residential housing market area.
The situation would be different if the law had established that the five or more properties could be located in any municipality within a declared stressed residential housing market area. However, this has not been regulated in this way. Nevertheless, it should not be overlooked that if these properties amount to a built surface area exceeding 1,500 m², the natural or legal person concerned will be considered a large property holder by virtue of meeting one of the requirements of the general definition set out in Article 3(k) of Law 12/2023.
For the purposes of how properties should be counted when the owner holds only bare ownership, usufruct rights, or in cases of shared ownership, reference may be made to the frequently asked questions published by the Government of Catalonia in relation to housing rental price caps.
If you are interested in delving deeper into the latest developments affecting large property holders in Catalonia, you may read this article on our blog or listen to this episode of our Inmobiliariamente podcast. If you would also like to learn more about the details of the new 20% tax rate under the Property Transfer Tax for large property holders in Catalonia, you can read this article on our blog, with the option of listening to it in podcast format in this episode.
Basque Country
The Basque Country is the Autonomous Community that has declared the largest number of stressed residential housing market areas, with a total of eleven, each of which consists of a single municipality:
The tailoring of the definition of large property holder by reducing the number of dwellings required for a person to qualify as such to five has been carried out in all declarations, with the exception of the municipality of Bilbao, where the general definition established by Law 12/2023 of 24 May remains applicable.
It should be noted that, in all resolutions where the term large property holder is tailored, it is established that the natural or legal person must own five or more urban residential properties within the municipality. Consequently, nothing suggests that the five properties counted may be located in different municipalities that have also been declared stressed residential housing market areas.
Navarre
Navarre has declared a single stressed residential housing market area by means of Regional Order 157E/2025 of 19 May, issued by the Regional Minister for Housing, Youth and Migration Policies. This single area includes a total of 22 municipalities.
In this case, the definition of large property holder has also been tailored by reducing the minimum number to five properties, and once again it is clear that residential properties must be “located within the stressed residential housing market area declared in section 2 of this regional order”. Therefore, in this case too, there is no room for doubt.
Galicia
Galicia has also declared a single stressed residential housing market area by means of the Resolution of 30 May 2025 of the President of the Galician Institute for Housing and Land, which includes only the municipality of A Coruña. In this case, the definition of large property holder is not tailored by reducing the number of properties, and therefore there are no interpretative doubts.
Being a large property holder for the purposes of one regulation or another
It should be noted that the definition of large property holder set out in the preceding paragraphs is the one that applies under the regulatory framework derived from Law 12/2023, and it does not apply to other regulations that also contain a definition of this concept.
For example, in the case of Catalonia, the definition of large property holder provided for in Law 12/2023 does not apply for the purposes of the increased tax rates under the Transfer Tax applicable to large property holders set out in Article 641-1 of the Catalan Tax Code, since that code contains a specific definition of large property holder. Nor does it apply for the purposes of Law 24/2015 of 29 July on urgent measures to address the housing emergency and energy poverty, as that law also contains its own definition of the term.
Accordingly, when determining the legal obligations that a large property holder must comply with, it is necessary to first verify whether a natural or legal person meets the defining criteria established by each of the specific regulations that impose such obligations.
At MES Advocats, we have a team of lawyers specialized in real estate law with in-depth knowledge of all regulations relating to large property holders. If you require legal advice on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us via this link.
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