92
92

Key facts about the new Law of Refurbishment.

The Senate passed yesterday the draft of the Law of urban refurbishment, regeneration and renovation. The legal reform of the real estate sector is therefore completed, after the new Law for rentals. (…)

Change of model

The importance of the norm is based on the change of the real estate model it is trying to stimulate: after decades of a hegemonic building of new homes, the apathy of the sector obliges to turn the business to a facelift of the aging Spanish housing development. Refurbishments represent 28% of the total construction in Spain, thirteen points below the European average (41%).

Less bureaucracy

This new economic strategy will be carried out with incentives: with the elimination of bureaucracy, with facilities for neighborhood associations, simplifying legislation. The voting system of the neighborhood associations is simplified, and now it will be possible to get an approval with a simple majority in many cases, such as for anything related with lifts.

Better financing

The norm establishes a new model of public-private cooperation, so that the energy saving obtained by the refurbishment may pay for the works. Owners will also be able to create companies in the sector and have therefore access more easily to financing. And the minor works will also opt to public aid.

To reactivate the employment

The Government has calculated that with the new regulation and over all, with the new Housing and Refurbishment Plan, 105.000 new jobs will be created in four years. (…)

Accessibility

The law underpins the accessibility of old buildings. There are more than “3 million flats” in buildings that should carry out a mandatory refurbishment before 2016 in order to be accessible, but the Government will grant two more years, until 2018. The councils will force these refurbishments.

Source: Expansión