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Which housing decree-laws stay in force while the Cortes are dissolved, and who votes on them?

§ 1The four decree-laws

You are about to reserve a flat in Spain. The agent mentions a housing decree-law, and the news says two were repealed and two new ones issued. You want to know which text is in force on the day you sign, and who decides that.

A dissolution stops bills but not decree-laws. A smaller committee of the Congress takes over the vote on them. So the text in force on your signing day depends on a committee vote, and in the agendas we read that vote has no date.

§ 2Dates in the gazette

Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 and Real Decreto-ley 27/2026 are both dated 29 September 2026. The first deals with the social function of housing and affordable supply, and the second with the stability of leases of a main home. On 2 October 2026 the Congress agreed to repeal both. Two resolutions of that day order the agreements to be published in the gazette, and each cites article 86.2 of the Constitution.

Real Decreto 806/2026, dated 5 October 2026, dissolved the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. The gazette published it on 6 October 2026, and it entered into force that day. It calls elections to both chambers for 29 November 2026. The campaign runs 13 November to 27 November 2026. The new chambers meet in constitutive session on 23 December 2026.

The Government then approved two new decree-laws, both dated 6 October 2026 and both published in the gazette of 7 October 2026. Decree-law 28/2026 reworks the rules on the renewal of main-home leases, and its final provision says it enters into force on 15 November 2026. Decree-law 29/2026 is the successor of 26/2026. The site's note on what the 2026 decrees change gives the content of both, so this post deals only with how they are voted.

The preamble of 28/2026 addresses the question of whether a dissolved parliament can still receive new decree-laws. As we read it, the text says the Government may approve decree-laws after both chambers are dissolved. It also refers to sending a decree-law to the Congress for validation after an earlier, similar one has been repealed. That is the Government's own account of why it acted, and it is not a ruling on whether it was right.

§ 3Decree-laws and the thirty days

The Constitution lets the Government issue decree-laws only in a case of extraordinary and urgent need, and they are provisional. They cannot affect the basic institutions of the State, the rights and duties of the citizens in Title I, the regime of the Autonomous Communities or general electoral law (article 86.1). The preamble of 28/2026 argues that the ordinary procedure would be too slow. Whether that argument holds is a question for the courts, and we do not rule on it.

A decree-law takes effect on the date it states. It then needs the Congress to validate it. Article 86.2 says the Congress must debate and vote on the whole text immediately, and that it must validate or repeal it within thirty days of promulgation. Article 151 of the Congress rules repeats the thirty days and sets the procedure. A minister explains the decree-law, the vote is yes to validate and no to repeal, and the agreement is published in the gazette. After a validation the chamber may also agree to process the text as a bill by the urgent procedure, which article 86.3 of the Constitution allows the Cortes to do during the same period.

§ 4Who votes while the Cortes are dissolved

Article 78 of the Constitution gives each chamber a Diputación Permanente of at least 21 members. The president of the chamber chairs it, and the seats are shared among the parliamentary groups in proportion to their size. When the chamber is dissolved or its mandate has expired, the committee takes over the chamber's powers under articles 86 and 116. Article 86 is the one on decree-laws, so the vote on 28 and 29 falls to the committee. The committee stays in function until the new Cortes are constituted, and when the new chamber meets it reports on the matters it handled and the decisions it took.

Article 151 of the Congress rules says the same in procedural terms, because it names the Pleno or the Diputación Permanente as the body that debates and votes. The election therefore does not decide 28 and 29. The committee decides them before the election, and it keeps sitting until the new chambers meet on 23 December 2026.

§ 5What stays in force and what stops

On our reading, three things continue and one stops.

Laws already published stay in force. A dissolution changes who legislates, and the articles of the decree of dissolution that we read deal only with the chambers and the election. Decree-laws stay in force from their stated dates until a vote repeals them. The Government also continues. Article 101 of the Constitution says it ceases after general elections and continues in functions until the new Government takes office, so the election, and not the dissolution, is the point after which it ceases.

Bills are what stops. Article 207 of the Congress rules says that once the chamber is dissolved, all pending matters lapse, except those that the Diputación Permanente must handle under the Constitution. A decree-law validation is such a matter. A members' bill is not, on any reading we found. The post on the proposed tax on non-EU buyers reads that bill line by line. On our reading it lapsed on 6 October 2026, and nothing stops a group filing it again once the new chamber sits.

For the proposed 100 percent tax the consequence is plain. Nothing we read in 28/2026, or in the part of 29/2026 we could read, creates it, and the committee has no bill to vote on. We were not able to read the final provisions of 29/2026 in full, so we make no claim about them.

§ 6Where the vote stands

The most recent agenda we read from the Diputación Permanente is for session number 8 on 16 October 2026. Its only item is the validation or repeal of decree-laws 24/2026 and 25/2026. It does not list 28 or 29, and we found no later agenda that does. Press reports a vote around 12 November 2026. That is a press report and not an official text, so we were not able to confirm the date or the result.

On 2 November 2026 the Congress website also lists a session of the committee for 3 November, and we could not open its agenda. If it covers 28 and 29, the vote comes before the 12 November date in the press, and the example below would need new dates. Check the agenda and the gazette the day you read this.

Counted as calendar days from 6 October 2026, the thirty days end on 5 November 2026, which is a week before the reported vote. That is our sum, not the Congress's. The Congress may count the days another way, and we were not able to confirm its rule, so we do not say the press date is wrong. It is the first date to check.

§ 7One imaginary purchase

The buyer is invented and the dates are illustrative. On 3 November 2026 this buyer, who lives outside the EU, signs a reservation for a resale flat in the Valencian Community and pays a deposit. Decree-laws 28 and 29 are published and awaiting validation, and we found no vote scheduled.

Press reports a committee vote around 12 November 2026. The campaign then runs 13 November to 27 November 2026. Decree-law 28 enters into force on 15 November 2026 if the committee has not repealed it first, and that is the date to ask the lawyer about, because the vote may come before or after it. The private contract is set for 20 November 2026, inside the campaign. The country votes on 29 November 2026. From 1 December 2026 the VAT changes in 29/2026 take effect, which matters to a buyer who plans to let furnished short stays. The new chambers meet on 23 December 2026, and the committee's functions end. The deed is set for 15 January 2027, and by then the Government of the day continues in functions until a new one takes office.

We make no forecast of the election or of what any new chamber will do. The texts fix only the order of events. In this example two decree-laws, a committee vote, an election and a new chamber all fall between the reservation and the deed. The chapter on the reservation contract and the one on pulling out of a purchase show where a clause for a change in the law would go.

What applies to you today, whatever the committee decides, is in the chapter on the position of non-EU buyers today.

§ 8What we could not confirm

We were not able to open the agenda of the committee session listed for 3 November. We were not able to confirm the date and result of the committee's vote on decree-laws 28/2026 and 29/2026. Press reports one date, and no agenda we read confirms it. Nor could we confirm how the Congress counts the thirty days, or what happens to acts done under a decree-law that is later repealed. The final provisions of decree-law 29/2026, including its entry into force as a whole, were not available to us. No bill that counts as a matter the committee must handle after the dissolution turned up in our reading, and beyond the lapse rule above we do not know the status of the bill on the 100 percent tax.

§ 9Questions to put to a Spanish lawyer who acts for you alone

Put these in writing and ask for the gazette reference with each answer. An independent lawyer who acts for you alone is the person to ask.

Which decree-laws are in force on the day I reserve, on the day of the private contract and on the day of the deed, and which are awaiting a vote? If the committee repeals 28 or 29 after I sign, what happens to my deposit, my price and my right to withdraw? Does my contract say who bears a new tax or a changed lease rule that takes effect between signing and the deed?

Is the flat let, and if so, which lease rules apply to my dates with and without 28/2026? Will you check the gazette and the Congress agenda on the day before each signing and tell me in writing?

Dotted underline marks an illustrative figure. It shows how a calculation works and is not a quote, a rate or a forecast.

Legal note. How the process works in general. It is not legal advice, and it never replaces an independent Spanish lawyer acting for you.