The Government admits to the 101 "errors" in its report for not limiting rental prices: "They do not alter the conclusions"

PalmThe Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, admitted this Friday that the report commissioned by the Balearic Government, which concludes that limiting rental prices in the Balearic Islands is not advisable, contained numerous calculation errors. The department invested €15,519.46 in this study, conducted by the Rovira i Virgili University Foundation (URV), in which the percentages were incorrectly calculated in 13 of the 25 tables provided. After the ARA Baleares made it publicMateo stated that it was a "typo in the transcription of some of the percentage values, detected by the report's authors themselves," and that it has already been corrected. This newspaper has counted up to 101 calculation errors in the document.

According to Mateo, the "values ​​have already been resolved." Furthermore, the regional minister maintained that "these errors in no way alter the conclusions of the report," entitledReport on the advisability of introducing a rent control system for residential rentals in the Balearic Islands"I would like to make it clear that it not only provides data related to our islands, but also that, with reliable data, it is clear that this solution has not yielded good results in Catalonia," the minister explained. Despite the errors – several experts consulted by ARA Baleares While some have questioned its methodology, Mateo said he was "satisfied" with the study. "They themselves alerted us, and we addressed the issue, and the final result is what it is," he said. However, he asserted that the Catalan government's opposition to rent control is not based "solely on this report." "It was also necessary to have a report from a reputable organization that could shed some light on the matter, but this report includes more than 200 others that also discuss these harmful effects [of rent control]," he emphasized. The 51-page document concludes that rent controls reduce "the availability of rental housing," intensify "competition for units not subject to such strict regulation," and generate "distributive distortions that unequally affect households with different income levels." He relies on "international and national literature" and also points out that when regulations are tightened, "part of the supply migrates to less regulated modalities." Based on figures from Catalonia, where the national law is applied, he asserts that "any intervention that restricts price freedom without being accompanied by measures to expand supply risks exacerbating existing problems."