The housing law, which in April celebrated one year since its approval, has not managed to solve the serious problem of access to housing because it has not been accompanied by measures to increase supply. Lost time. The fact that there is no affordable rental stock is a problem that has turned housing in Spain into a social emergency. It is one of the conclusions of the experts who this Wednesday attended the Housing Law conference one year later: progress and challenges, organized by the Esade Alumni Real Estate Club. The real estate sector has criticized that the law until now has focused on price control in areas declared stressed, a measure that is currently only applied in 140 Catalan municipalities and that “does not make any sense, unless it is for a short term and is accompanied by an immediate increase in supply”, has indicated Eduard Mendiluce, CEO of Anticipa and Aliseda, the real estate companies of the Blackstone fund in Spain. He has warned Mendiluce that the reduction in supply in the Catalan region is “tremendous.” Furthermore, the Generalitat's measure to include new construction promotions in the price cap has «damaged» the so-called build to rent (promotion and construction of apartments for rent). The sector censures that in this year of validity of the housing law has not focused on the serious lack of supply. A lack that the Ministry of Housing is aware of. “There is a deficit of one million homes and, to solve it, a production cruising speed of 200,000 homes per year must be reached, compared to the few more than 90,000 that were built in the last year,” says Anselmo Menéndez, deputy director. general policy and housing aid of the ministry, which has assured that there are three or four communities that are analyzing the application of the stressed areas. According to his estimates, 30% of this deficit should be solved with public housing, since there are only between 350,000 and 400,000 units in Spain, so it is necessary to «double that amount urgently.» Another 30% should be affordable housing, both for rent and purchase, under public-private collaboration and on both public and private land. The remaining 40% would be free housing, for which it is necessary to accelerate the granting of licenses and occupancy certificates. In the last decade, housing policies have focused on the rental market and the rehabilitation of houses versus the sale and purchase. . “It was a serious mistake. We should have facilitated access to housing for purchase because it would have taken pressure off rent,” Menéndez said “in a personal capacity.” He has assured that “the housing law generates uncertainty and can cause the potential investor to withdraw in principle” and has been in favor of recovering the deduction for habitual residence in a phased manner (depending on the price), a measure that was eliminated in 2013, and direct state aid to the down payment for the purchase of a house, suppressed in 2010. The real estate sector gathered at the forum has indicated that it is urgent to implement the mechanisms that the housing law itself already contemplates but that are not being implemented. applying, such as public-private collaboration, to try to alleviate the problem. “The law proposes an important ambition, but we propose that there be a more consensual ambition also with the private initiative and with the different agents that intervene in this sector,” explained the corporate general director of Inmobiliaria Colonial, Carmina Ganyet. “We must put the focus on these issues and not on those that have been placed during the first year of the law», such as the ICO guarantees for the purchase of the first home and the price limit, said Helena Beunza, president of ASVAL, an association of rental property owners. Beunza, who was Secretary General of Housing at the time when José Luis Ábalos headed the ministry, has criticized that each vacant tender, the result of the lack of dialogue between the public and private sectors, means an extra year and a half to get that land to the market.
Transfer of homes from large owners
Large property owners urge the Government to reach an agreement for the transfer of thousands of homes for social rental to vulnerable families. Although Beunza has acknowledged that relevant issues such as who chooses the tenant or what happens in the event of non-payment would have to be debated. “It is urgent to mobilize the existing empty and non-empty housing stock to put affordable rentals on the market and it is also necessary to mobilize the private land stock,” Mendiluce indicated. The problem is that the numbers do not work out and that is why it proposes «a program for the transfer of private land to create public housing under a concessional regime.» Menéndez recalled that the Ministry will guarantee the loans of the Housing Line of 4,000 million euros managed by the ICO in the second phase of the Recovery Plan to promote access to financing for public and private promoters. «It will even be possible to finance the land.» Rescuing and approving the failed land law, which the Government withdrew from the agenda of Congress last May due to lack of support, is another recipe. The sector has complained about the high costs of land transformation and the lack of flexibility to change uses (for example, from tertiary to residential). “The legislation makes housing production unprofitable,” stated Íñigo Fernández de Mesa, president of Rothschild & Co Spain and vice president of the CEOE. “The flexibility of urban planning and administrative procedures is necessary,” added Beunza, who has called for an increase in public spending on housing, despite being aware that “it is going to be complex” due to the excessive deficit that Spain is dragging.Continue all the information about Economy and Business on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter