Spain is undergoing the most significant of turns in its state housing policy since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s. Three measures illustrate the drive to reform a system historically oriented towards home ownership: the reintroduction of rent control after forty years, the creation of the first state-owned company intended to develop and manage social and affordable housing on a permanent basis, and the reinforcement of the country’s residual public stock under new parameters. The multi-level and plurinational architecture of the state, combined with deep political polarisation, is nevertheless limiting the effective reach of this change and driving a reorganisation of governance.