The Government considers that in Spain a sector of companies specialized in promoting and managing social and affordable rental housing is being created, as explained by Francisco Javier Martín, general director of Housing and Land of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda. “We have launched, in addition to the Housing Law, many instruments to promote the creation of an affordable housing stock, such as the project to build 20,000 homes with Next Generation European funds, or the 4,000 million line of public financing of the Addendum to that plan, which will be granted until June 2026,” said Martín.
In his opinion, “we have laid the foundations to create a business sector specialized in making social and affordable housing. Four years ago there were not even projects for private companies to build homes with transfer of surface rights. The inertia is created: there are aid instruments to mobilize public land and all administrations are concerned about this issue and are mobilizing. Now there is European aid, and the missing financing will be provided by the Spanish administrations, because all of them, of all political colors, are on that line. And the demand is guaranteed.”
Martín, who participated in the IX Immoscòpia Tribune, organized by the Association of Real Estate Agents of Catalonia (AIC) and the Official College of Real Estate Agents (Coapi), assured that there are already companies interested in making affordable housing, as has been seen in the projects launched by the city council and the community of Madrid. “And there will also be some to create social housing if there is more aid, and if the administrations guarantee, for example, private operators the risk of non-payment of rent for vulnerable families.”
Francisco Javier Pérez, CEO of Culmia, one of the most active promoters in the construction of the Live in Madrid plans, pointed out instead that measures such as rent control provided for in the new Housing law, which will begin to be implemented in Catalonia , will make it impossible for more rental housing (BTR) to be built. “We have delivered 200 homes in BTR projects in the community and we have another 600 underway but with the impossibility of updating rents it is very difficult for investors to enter. And those who approach, when they see these limitations, want the guarantees that the funds that invest in infrastructure have”, in which all contingencies are covered so that the profitability, although very low, is very safe.
José Garcia Montalvo, professor of Economics at UPF, acknowledged that administrations have now opened up to collaboration formulas with private companies but “many of them are not willing to accept that the private promoter has a profitability.” Martín acknowledged that administrations and companies “are learning” to create the rules. “The expectations of both parties are getting closer,” in a trial-error method, because there are tenders that are awarded while others remain deserted.
Martín reiterated that the government plans to have the reference index ready that will be used to apply rent control throughout the month of February. The index is being prepared by a technical team in which experts from the Cadastre, College of Economists, Registrars, Bank of Spain participate. Tax Agency and the INE “to give it the greatest possible strength.” The government explained “is collaborating intensively with the Generalitat, because it is the one that has experience in its application,” but recalled that rent control is contemplated in the Housing Law as a “temporary” measure, until more measures work. structural measures to correct the lack of affordable housing.
Marina Berasategui, Secretary of Housing of the Generalitat of Catalonia, also recognized the temporary nature of a measure in her opinion “necessary to bridle and cool the market.” Berasategui pointed out that the key to building the affordable housing that is needed is financing, and considered that Catalonia would need half of the 4,000 million of the Addendum of Next Generation funds, and demanded that they be managed by the ICF, to arrive quickly. and effective to the town councils. “Housing projects have emerged on public lands, but the municipalities do not have the financial muscle to execute these projects,” she lamented.
At the opening of the day, the president of the General Council of the COAPI of Spain, Gerard Duelo, and the president of the Association of Real Estate Agents of Catalonia (AIC), Vicenç Hernández Reche, spoke, agreeing on the need for public-private collaboration. effective to solve the housing problem and to reach “a State pact” between the major political forces to solve the housing problem.
Xavier Vilajoana, president of the Association of Promoters of Catalonia (APCE), asked the administrations to “listen to the professionals.” In his opinion, they are “regulating on a trial-and-error basis, with measures such as reserving 30% of urban land for protected housing. But since the administration is very slow to correct, it paralyzes the sector.” This, he pointed out, has meant that the promotion of new construction does not cover the housing needs, which are estimated in Catalonia at 25,000 a year. “We have had a deficit of 10,000 homes a year for more than a decade, which is accumulating,” he highlighted.
Lorenzo Viñas, president of the Col•legi d’administradors de finques de Barcelona i Lleida, lamented that “ideology conditions legislation.” In his opinion, measures are taken “to have great headlines, but they have not helped, but on the contrary, since they have scared away the owners.” Viñas recalled that construction projects will take years to generate housing. “In the meantime, the only way to have rental housing is to get private owners to provide it.”
