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Town Hall of Madrid Is Building 2,300 of the 4,000 Homes Promised by 2019

14 February 2018 – Madridiario

On Wednesday, the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, and the delegate for Equality, Social Rights and Employment, Marta Higueras, visited several developments currently under construction by the Municipal Housing and Land Company (‘Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y el Suelo’ or EMVS) in the districts of Villaverde and Puente de Vallecas (Madrid).

The Town Hall of Madrid, through the ‘Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y el Suelo’, has 2,356 homes under construction, at different stages, of the 4,000 that it has committed to building in total during this legislature. All of them are destined for rent and represent a change of tack towards “social needs” with respect to the previous PP Government, because “they are not being built to make money”.

That is according to the delegate for Equality, Social Rights and Employment, Marta Higueras, speaking on Wednesday. She detailed that, under the previous regulations, people who can now be awarded homes and who receive income for the entire family unit of between €600 and €700, were previously not allowed to register as applicants for homes (…) as they did not meet the minimum economic requirements.

“Only those that exceeded the IPREM by three times were allowed to register, but we have turned around that social approach because we are not looking to make money (from the process)”, said Higueras, who added that some rents start at as little as €65/month.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, recalled that the responsibility for housing, both in terms of its construction and provision, lies with the Community of Madrid (regional Government) but, in fact, it is the Town Hall “that is proving to be the first port of call for citizens and that is having to find a solution”. To emphasise this point, Higueras contrasted the more than 2,300 homes that the Town Hall has underway, in different phases of construction, with the 140 homes planned for the capital by the regional executive.

Of those 2,536 homes in different phases of construction, 970 of them have already been started or will be started soon. They are joined by 458 under public tender, which will soon be awarded to the construction company and 212 in the phase of project supervision and licence management. Another 200 are inter-generational homes in the Ecobarrio de Vallecas, which are under tender and 516 are in the internal tender publication process for the drafting of plans.

Original story: Madridiario

Translation: Carmel Drake