Podemos Pushes Increased Social Housing in Pact with PSOE

18 November 2019 – Podemos, the left-wing populist political party led by the political scientist Pablo Iglesias, signed a pre-agreement with the PSOE to create a governing coalition. The accord includes topics that the party, which was created in 2014, has espoused throughout its short life. One of the ten points included in the platform is a constitutional right to housing. Iglesias added that his party had not agreed to enter into a coalition with the centre-left PSOE because they were unable to agree on the subject beforehand.

Podemos is now looking to create a right to housing as a basis of the country’s constitution, with legal guarantees. Some of the proposed measures would directly affect the rental market, with indefinite rental contracts, with transparent grounds for justified termination and automatic extensions where the tenant is especially vulnerable and the landlord a large property owner. The party also supports increasing the stock of social housing by 50,000 flats per year through the compulsory transfer of empty homes held by funds, banks and Sareb, for example, for use in the rental market.

The announcement led to share declines for some of the largest Spanish socimis, including Merlin and Colonial.

Original Story: El Confidencial – Ruth Ugalde

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner