Tag: Land Act

Asprima: Buildable Land is Running Out in Madrid

25 November 2017 – ABC

Land is running out and the market is becoming distorted in the Spanish capital. For two years, the price of buildable land for the construction of new homes in the Community of Madrid has been rising, especially in the centre. There is not much buildable land left and the space that is available has seen its value rise due to the increase in demand. This equation means that, unless new variables are introduced, we will end up seeing an acceleration in house prices. “Real estate activity has returned with a vengeance and new housing is needed”, according to Daniel Cuervo, the Director General of the Association of Property Developers in Madrid (Asprima) (…). By way of example, “in Valdebebas, two years ago, people were paying €800 per square metre for buildable land “and now that price is above €1,500/m2 (…)”.

He also thinks that the property developers feel very certain about the sale of their homes “and that there is competition between them”, which translates into high house prices. Certain political decisions have paralysed several developments (…).

The Councillor for the Environment and Town Planning at the Community of Madrid, Pedro Rollán, was quite explicit this week when he said that “talking about housing requires us to talk about land” (…). “Many people have been obliged to go outside of Madrid due to the (high) price of land (in the centre),” he said, at a conference organised by the Association of Housing Managers (AGV). At the same time, he called for “a policy that allows for the development of sufficient land to deal with the true demand in the city of Madrid”. Rollán made reference to the importance of the “large batch of land in the south-east of Madrid”, where “at least 50% of the homes will be subsidised properties”.

Value of land

Daniel Cuervo also said that the project underway in Los Berrocales, Los Ahijones, Los Cerros and Valdecarros (the Strategy for the Southeast, within the municipality of Madrid) will allow “the relaxation of new house prices, given that more than 100,000 homes are planned”. To this end, the Town Hall needs to “continue complying with urban planning legislation to convert plots into buildable land”.

The Director General of Asprima also (…) made reference to a study conducted by IESE, which indicates the need for 13,000 new homes per year in the municipality of Madrid “and the impossibility of achieving that”.

According to the experts, the price of land, with respect to the price of a home, should not exceed 20-25% of the total value; and the traditional unwritten rules indicate that it should represent one third. “In the neighbourhood of Salamanca, in certain cases, the price paid for land may reach 70%-75% of the final value of the home”, explains Óscar Ochoa, Director of the New Build department at the real estate firm Gilmar (…).

Areas on the rise

If we talk about other parts of Madrid, things change. In San Sebastián de los Reyes, for example, the value of land “represents around 30%-35%”. Ochoa warns that it is not only in the centre that it is impossible to find new land, the supply is also scarce along some of the main access roads. “Such is the case in Las Tablas, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Montecarmelo and Valdebebas along the A-1 and in Pozuelo and Las Rosas along the A-6”.

For Ochoa, the solution involves establishing urban development plans designed to meet the true demand for the areas (…). Ochoa acknowledges that in terms of buildable land “we are in the hands of the politicians”. That is why he asks “for the plots to be organised and for the concession and licence processes to be streamlined”.

According to the Community of Madrid, there is a need for between 15,000 and 20,000 homes per year, including the repositioning of homes for those who want to change the kind of property they live in and new homes that are built. (…).

The situation is also affecting the rental market, according to José María García Gómez, Director General of Housing and Rehabilitation for the Community of Madrid (…). “The rental market is under pressure and prices are rising there once again”.

García Gómez believes that the role of the Administration “is not to put obstacles in the way, but rather to grant licences. He believes that the new Land Act, which is being drafted, will bring stability, pointing out that of the 178 municipalities in the region, only 20 have a general housing plan in place. The conclusion is clear: much remains to be done” (…).

Original story: ABC (by Belén Rodrigo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cifuentes Presents New Land Act For Community Of Madrid

25 October 2016 – Expansión

Yesterday, the President of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes (pictured above), submitted the draft bill for the new Law governing Urban Planning and Land in the Community of Madrid, an initiative long demanded by the Madrilenian real estate sector. The bill aims to clarify and organise the management of urban planning in the region, whereby replacing the existing regional Land Act, which dates back to 2001.

During its 15 years of life, the existing text has been partially modified 15 times, which, as the Ministry of the Environment, Local Administration and Land Planning itself admits, has ended up making it “difficult to understand and interpret”.

“Circumstances have changed considerably over the last 15 years and so the content of the Land Act has been completely distorted”, acknowledged Cifuentes yesterday during the presentation of the new draft bill. “This new law has been put together as a single piece of legislation to give coherence to the urban planning rules”, she added.

The regional Government plans to submit the Draft Bill to the Assembly before the end of the year and, according to Cifuentes, it hopes to obtain “the maximum consensus and support possible”. It is something that seems almost impossible, taking into account that eight months ago both the PSOE and Podemos left the technical and political tables that have been managing the text presented yesterday.

This was not helped either by the fact that Ciudadanos decided to put “an end” to these working tables in a unilateral way “to look for a new consensus”, according to an announcement last week from its spokesman in the Assembly, Ignacio Aguado. The orange party’s idea is to look for maximum political support to approve the law, and so it is advocating that the work of these tables be transferred to the specific report about the Land Act, which already exists in the Assembly.

“We want a Law that represents the consensus of all of the political groups and not another piece of steam roller legislation from the PP”, said Aguado. “Ciudadanos is going to fight to ensure that there is real citizen participation and genuine transparency in the way that urban plans are prepared. We want to put an end to the current opacity”, said the spokesman. (…).

New elements

In addition to the goal of making urban planning “more agile and transparent”, the Draft Bill presented yesterday by Cifuentes includes some important innovations. The most notable is its commitment to urban renovation and regeneration, compared with the model of expansionist urban planning under the previous legislation.

In this sense, one of the most innovative aspects is the fact that cities in the region will have the opportunity to undertake the renovation of large areas without the need to modify their General Plans. (…).

The new text retains the categories of urban land – buildable and non-buildable, but eliminates the category of unsectorised buildable land, which becomes non-buildable common land. Nothing can be built on this kind of land, under any circumstances, unless its classification is changed in the general plan upon request by the town halls themselves. “The aim is to achieve a more sustainable urban planning approach that avoids unnecessary urban planning developments”, say sources at the Ministry.

Other novelties include the creation of a Simplified General Urban Plan, designed for towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants and budgets of less than €6 million. Those towns may choose to adopt this framework, which is more flexible and agile than an ordinary plan, provided that the work focuses on historical centres and does not include any new developments. This framework may be applied to almost half of the 179 municipalities in the region.

Original story: Expansión (byLuis M. De Ciria and Carlota G. Velloso)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cifuentes Abolishes Madrid’s 3-Storey Land Act

11 December 2015 – Expansión

On Thursday, the Plenary Assembly of Madrid abolished the section of the Land Act that prohibits the construction of buildings of more than three storeys, thanks to support from members of the PP and Ciudadanos and despite the opposition votes by members of Podemos and the PSOE.

Enrique Veloso, one of Ciudadanos’s members, who defended the draft Law for the modification of the Land Act in the Community of Madrid, said that the now abolished law “has done a lot of damage to town planning”. He criticised the fact that this restriction to construct only three storey properties was applied in a blanket fashion across all towns, without taking into account the characteristics of each municipality.

Ramón Espinar, member of Podemos, said that this partial reform of the Land Act “has circumvented the agreement” that existed between all of the parliamentary groups to draft a new Land Act. He added that the current PP is “the same as ever” and he criticised its rejection of a comprehensive reform of the aforementioned law, which “understood that land was being preyed upon as a resource”.

The socialist member Rafael Montoya declared that his party’s town planning model is “compatible with the interests of residents and is respectful of the environment”, and he confirmed that the abolition of the three-storey restriction “would not help to generate consensus”. He advocated a comprehensive reform of the current Land Act and he criticised Ciudadanos’s collaboration with the PP, stressing that both parties “form part of the same right (wing)”.

The PP member Diego Lozano accused Podemos and PSOE of abandoning the motion for the reformation of the Land Act and said that they do not understand “the urgency” of the need for a comprehensive modification of the law that was approved eight years ago.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake