Basque Country approves new rules to convert empty commercial units into housing

The Basque Government has approved Decree 55/2026, which lowers the minimum usable floor area to 35 m² and removes the requirement for two opposite orientations when converting commercial premises into homes. The regional rule sets the framework, but each local council decides where it applies and under which pricing regime.

The owner of a 38-square-metre unit with a single exit, bought two decades ago for 15,000 euros, views the change with a mix of relief and distrust. The rule that kept the door closed for years has just peine. The question is at what price.

## From 45 to 35 metres and a single façade

The **Decree 55/2026**, which amends the previous habitability decree, lowers the general usable floor area threshold to **35 m²**. Many municipalities required **45 m²** or more, which excluded a significant share of the stock of commercial units. The minimum ceiling height remains **2.60 metres**.

The obligation to have two opposite orientations disappears — the strict cross-ventilation so many ground-floor commercial units failed to meet. Homes facing only north or west are now accepted, and the requirements for direct sunlight and the interior layout of rooms are relaxed.

The regional government estimates there are some **7,500 empty commercial units** across the region that meet the ideal conditions to enter the residential market. That is the figure that justifies the move: already-built space, with urban services paid for, going from dead to useful.

## The safeguard against speculation

Here lies the detail that changes the business. Converted units are assimilated to collaborative or social housing regimes. In cities with high residential pressure, the converted land will be directly designated as **Vivienda de Protección Tasada (VPT)** (capped-price protected housing).

That means an income threshold for buyers and a maximum price cap. In most cases, these conversions are banned from the free market or tourist rentals. Whoever bought cheap twenty years ago does not land a windfall, but a regulated asset.

The logic is to prevent the technical relaxation from turning into a ground-floor bubble. Without price controls, easing the floor area and orientation rules would have been an invitation to buy commercial units at bargain prices and resell them as penthouses.

## Who really decides: the local councils

The regional rules set the framework, but final approval still depends on the planning and licences of each local council. Municipalities regulate in which areas conversion is allowed and in which it is not, with the declared aim of protecting local commerce.

That is the practical knot. An owner may meet every minimum in the decree only to find their street is designated a protected commercial corridor. Or the opposite: a municipality under housing pressure may be more generous in the areas it cares about.

The rule does not solve the underlying problem of housing prices, but it makes a move. It brings built, long-unused space onto the market, with one condition: that it does not end up in the hands of those seeking only capital gains. The outcome depends on how councils apply it, and that is still unwritten.