Homelessness has become the main concern of Spaniards and the Government wants to act on this problem by involving the private sector. The president, Pedro Sánchez, has convened a group of professionals and real estate agents tomorrow at the Moncloa Palace to try to find joint solutions to the situation, which is especially serious in some areas of the country. It is a pioneering initiative by the Executive and occurs coinciding with the entry into force of the rental index in 140 municipalities of Catalonia and with the request, by the Ministry of Housing, to other autonomous communities to apply the rent control regulations. prices.
The invitation has been sent to representatives of developers, construction companies, public housing managers, cooperatives, rehabilitation companies; banking employers; professional colleges; foundations, platforms and unions. The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, will also be present at the event.
One of the main actors in the sector, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Vía Agora and the Association of Developers and Builders of Spain (Apce), will attend the event. On behalf of the National Construction Confederation (CNM), its president, Pedro Fernández Alén, will attend, and there will also be a representative of Seopan, Julián Nuñez, its president. There will also be representatives of the Spanish Association of Public Housing and Land Managers (AVS), the Confederation of Housing Cooperatives of Spain (CONCOVI), the Association of Housing Managers (AGV) and the National Association of Companies of Rehabilitation and Reform (ANERR).
Also María Abascal, the general director of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), and Antonio Romero, corporate director of the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA), reported El Confidencial. Or sectoral representatives of UGT and CCOO, not their first swords.
On the part of the professional associations, those mentioned are the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) and the General Council of Official Colleges of Surveyors and Technical Architects of Spain / General Council of Technical Architecture of Spain (CGATE). Finally, there are members of Hogar Sí, ProVivienda, the Third Sector Platform and the Spanish Youth Council.
In the catalog of absences, representatives of large funds stand out, the so-called “large holders” of housing, such as Blackstone, or the main SOCIMI in the country, Merlin. Sareb, a key player in housing policy, has not been invited to the meeting with the President of the Government either.
The objective of the meeting is to provide solutions to what the Government has established as one of the pillars of the legislature. Sánchez plans to propose that public administrations and private actors advance measures and deepen those that have already been announced. “Having decent housing cannot depend only on market rules. This will be the legislature that turns housing into the fifth pillar of the welfare state,” Sánchez defended on Monday when he announced the end of golden visas for foreigners for investing in real estate.
The real estate sector is impatiently awaiting some of the measures implemented by the Government. One of the main ones is the modification of the Land Law, currently being processed by parliament. The Ministry of Housing has decided to accelerate the approval of this regulation which will include, among other things, ensuring that urban developments are not paralyzed due to minor problems.
In terms of financing, Housing wants to have the collaboration of the banks and to this end it has launched the line of guarantees for 2,500 million aimed at both young people and families, as well as promoters and builders.
One of the actors in the sector who will be present at the meeting with Sánchez, Gómez-Pintado, demanded a few days ago to extend the years in the property registry of the registration fee, which is limited to 7 years, and can be extended to 5 more years. with annual extensions. He also asked to limit public action in urban projects, which would mean that “only those interested in the urban transformation process can take legal action in its processing.”
The private sector has always denounced “the lack of supply we have and the increasingly sharp increase in demand,” Gómez-Pintado himself stated last Monday. In this sense, “policies that favor effective land development and management are essential to produce more housing, especially at affordable prices, in addition to a stable regulatory framework that encourages public-private collaboration. In addition to reducing bureaucracy throughout the process,” he claimed.
