Tag: Housing Plan

The PSPV Proposes a Housing Plan to Mobilise 4,500 Rental Homes in Valencia

23 February 2019 – Valencia Plaza

The socialist candidate for the Mayor of Valencia, Sandra Gómez (pictured below, left), has proposed a comprehensive housing plan for the city that would mobilise 4,500 homes, through new social housing units (VPO) and empty homes enabled for rental (…).

In a recent speech, the candidate for mayor explained that the plan to mobilise 4,500 homes includes empty homes. “Thanks to the Generalitat’s courage, we are going to have a map with which to operate to identify the large owners of homes, those who own more than ten empty properties”. With this, the socialists propose “an increase in the IBI charge for those empty homes that are not included in the rental market”.

In addition, to achieve the objective of this plan, they will demand “the maximum possible social housing in the city’s new developments, as we are already doing with developments such as Benimaclet, where 30% of the new builds will be VPO” (…).

And, as a third axis, Gómez has proposed that the administration “acts to promote the park of affordable housing that the city of Valencia currently lacks”. She recalled that there are initiatives such as the 300 public homes, being promoted by Aumsa and “the more than 1,000 that are going to be promoted by mobilising land from SEPE, as agreed with the Government of Spain this week. Nevertheless, the Town Hall has to do more” (…).

Original story: Valencia Plaza 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ministry of Development to Promote 5,000+ Rental Homes for Less than €400

19 November 2018 – La Razón

The Minister of Development, José Luis Ábalos, has announced that his Ministry is going to transfer €21.5 million to the Public Land Management Company (‘Entidad Pública Empresarial de Suelo’ or Sepes) to promote the construction of more than 5,000 social housing rental homes, which will cost no more than €400 in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Ibiza and Málaga.

At the Europa Press Informative Breakfast, the leader of the Ministry of Development said that the creation of these 5,000 homes, together with the 1,500 already included in the State Housing Plan, would account for almost one third of the 20,000 homes recently promised in Congress.

Specifically, Ábalos said during his appearance in the Lower House that the Ministry is going to promote a stock of 20,000 public homes for rental over the next four to six years with the aim of increasing the supply of such homes and helping to stop their rising prices.

For Ábalos, these measures lay the foundations for a housing policy that aims to guarantee access to housing. Nevertheless, he said that he is aware that this task, together with the protection of access to housing, will require the assistance of all of the administrations and political forces. For that reason, he urged that a “major agreement from the State for housing in Spain” be reached.

Decapitalising the stock of social housing

In this vein, he confirmed that the stock of social housing has been decapitalised to an affordable price and pointed out that this represents only 2.5% of the housing stock in Spain and that is “one of the lowest rates” in the European Union.

“Access to housing is a total headache for the middle and working classes and merely a pipe-dream for young people”, he added, after indicating that spending on housing by Spaniards living in rental properties is “well above the European average”, which is generating “a situation that cannot be permitted”.

During his speech, the Minister made it clear that recovering talent, raising the Minimum Inter-professional Wage (SMI), providing more wage stability and increasing pensions “are the right proposals to provide stability for Spain”.

He also said that work is being performed on long-term measures to increase the supply and recover the stock of homes, although he pointed out that work is also being carried out in the short term to modify the Urban Rental Law (LAU) to “limit guarantees” and give tenants more stability, and on the Civil Procedure Law (…).

The Royal Decree for Housing: due before the end of the year

When asked about when the Royal Decree that integrates the package of measures announced at the beginning of the legislature is going to come into force, Ábalos confirmed that the plan is for it to be approved before the end of the year because, in his opinion, “some of the measures are urgent and we need to get on with them”. In this way, he said that the real estate market in Spain is “reaching breaking point”.

In this vein, he said that “in Madrid, there are a lot of people who share flats because they do not have any other choice and all of that affects the minimum life project”. “What we are doing is not going to have a direct or immediate effect, but the urgency is vital in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona”, he said.

Original story: La Razón 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Galicia to Give €10,800 to Under-35s to Buy Homes in Small Municipalities

18 October 2018 – Inmodiario

The Xunta of Galicia is going to subsidise house purchases by young people under 35 by giving them up to €10,800 to buy homes in towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. That is according to the resolution published by the Diario Oficial de Galicia, which establishes the regulatory bases for the measure and marks the opening of the period for aid requests to be submitted, in accordance with the Housing Plan for 2018-2021.

The objective of these subsidies is to encourage young people to settle in the least populated towns, favouring the establishment of new households in the most rural areas of Galicia.

The resolution establishes that the amount of each grant will equate to 20% of the acquisition cost of the home and only ever up a maximum limit of €10,800 per beneficiary. Requests must be presented by 16 November (…).

Original story: Inmodiario 

Translation: Carmel Drake

What Impact Will the Housing Plan Have on Construction?

25 March 2018

For the first time, Spain’s Housing Plan may create incentives for private housing developments. Specifically, the Spanish government included subsidies of up to 36,750 euros per home that developers build for the residential long-term rental market in the program.

The government intends to boost the stock of residential housing in Spain, at a time when growing demand and the shortage of new housing are pushing prices up in some cities. Developers are cheering the measure, but question whether it will have a significant impact on the market.

Alberto Delgado, director of operations at Aedas Homes, noted that it is “vital to shorten the deadlines for the processing of the different licenses involved in the construction of homes and the creation of building-ready land.” In his opinion, “the delays in licensing and the shortage of building-ready land are two of the big obstacles that builders face. In a recent statement to the CNMV, the developer, which will sell 2,000 homes this year, said it took an average of six months for a construction license to be granted. In regions such as the Costa del Sol, this period can last up to eight months.

Increased costs

Neinor Homes took a similar position, stating that the measures included in the Housing Plan are unlikely “to affect the sector.” “Public subsidies can be an additional supplement, but housing sales can only fully recover if employment continues to grow and young people have the purchasing power to buy their first home,” the developer explained.

Metrovacesa affirmed that the “measure is positive”, but that there is a “need” to put “new homes that respond to the demands of citizens” on the market. Referring to the Housing Plan, the company controlled by Banco Santander and BBVA explained that “it is still early to determine its impact, although these measures always help to boost the market.”

All three companies agree that the stock of homes that the market currently has on offer is “insufficient” in certain regions. Last year some 80,000 new construction permits were granted, a figure notably lower than the 150,000 that analysts believe the market requires to respond to the overall demand.

“It’s not easy, construction costs have grown 10% in the last year. There exists a lack of contractors and labour. We have few crews, and it is not easy to train new professionals,” a real estate consultancy stated.

Original Story: ABC – G. Ginés

Translation: Richard Turner

Rajoy Will Give Tax Breaks To Banks That Lease Empty Homes

29 November 2016 – Expansión

Housing will be one of the first major agreements of the new legislature. The PP has reached “an agreement with the opposition” to approve a non-binding proposal to establish guidelines for real estate policy until 2021. This initiative, which will be debated by the Development Committee in Congress on Wednesday, includes an important new feature: it will incentivise the occupation of empty homes owned by financial institutions, public companies, Public Administrations and “other owners” by the “most vulnerable” families. For example, those on low incomes and those who have been evicted from their homes.

To achieve this, “tax incentives, agreements with large home owners and exchanges of land” will be approved, according to sources in the Popular Parliamentary Group. “All of the parties support the agreement”, which will give rise to a new Housing Plan, to be agreed, as always, with all of the regional governments.

The tax benefits that will be approved have not been defined yet because the PP still needs to agree them with the opposition. Moreover, the Ministry of Development, which is piloting the reform is in the middle of handing over powers and is not in any rush. “The left-wing parties like the idea. The agreement that we are going to reach on Wednesday is generic and we will have to do further work to iron out the details”, say the same sources.

In the face of initiatives to penalise owners of empty homes, such as those introduced in Cataluña, País Vasco and Andalucía, the new housing agreement will seek to “promote mechanisms of cooperation so that available unoccupied homes, owned by the Public Administrations, public companies, financial institutions and other owners may be occupied by the most vulnerable members of the population” according to the text in the Proposal, which has received a favourable report from the Ministry of Development.

The banks will be the main target for these measures. The appraisal company Tinsa calculates that the financial institutions own more than 80% of the stock of empty homes. In its most recent report, based on data as at 2015, Tinsa calculates that the banks own a surplus of more than 300,000 (empty) homes. In addition, the ratings agency Fitch says that at the end of last year, the financial sector owned “around 150,000 unsellable (new) homes”.

With this reform, it will be much easier for banks to free up their empty homes. Firstly, because they will receive guaranteed income from the State in the event that they allocate them as social rental properties. Secondly, because although the lease payments will be relatively low, the tax benefit will have a compensatory effect. Thirdly, because when the entities exchange properties for land, they will remove those assets that are hard to divest from their balance sheets and they will only include new properties in better locations and with better outlooks.

INE estimates that there are 3.5 million empty homes in Spain, but that almost all of them are owned by individuals. Tinsa says that, of all of the residential properties constructed since 2008 (that have never been lived in), only around 11,670 are owned by professionals, but they are not being marketed. That figure represents 3.9% of the total commercial stock (389,000 homes in 2015). (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake