Spain should build, between the central administration and the autonomous communities, the same amount of public housing each year as has been made available to citizens since 1990. The challenge is enormous. But, if the governments want to achieve the commitment set by the central government following the approval of the first state law and the various announcements to promote the public park with the collaboration of the Sareb or the empty grounds of the Ministry of Defense, and thus reaching 20% ​​of social housing at below-market prices in 2043, all administrations must launch an ambitious construction plan. The think tank EsadeEcPol sees it as “a difficult goal to imagine”.
The percentage of housing for social rent in Spain is currently at the bottom of Europe. It barely reaches 3%, far from the Netherlands (34%), Austria (23%) or Denmark (21%), according to OECD data. To answer the question about whether these figures would be affordable in Spain, and taking into account the housing policies proposed by the central government and the autonomous regions, EsadeEcPol highlights that the official stock is currently made up of around 26 million homes, of which 290,000 are publicly owned and, in addition, are dedicated to rent. To reach the proposed goal of 20% of the total park in 20 years, nearly 300,000 public buildings per year would have to be completed without interruption for two decades.
Esade analysts offer another dimension to the challenge: if the rate of construction does not increase in the coming years, at least nine out of ten homes added to the market should be of a social nature. “Something that seems improbable”, concludes the study service, given that the private sector is the main developer in the country. A fact to bear in mind is that at the peak of the real estate bubble, in 2007, 641,000 homes were sold in Spain. Today the volume is less than half.
Since long-term housing policies do not offer immediate results, EsadeEcPol proposes a new measure to increase the public stock with the collaboration of the private sector. It proposes a “density bond”, which would consist of an incentive to private developers so that they can build a greater amount of square meters than is allowed in a regulated area or that they can increase the number of properties or their height in exchange for developing social rental units. This proposal is not foreseen in the Housing law.
