One of the main purposes of the Housing Law, which was approved at the Congress of Deputies last week, is “reach the social housing stock, which represents 20% of the total number of households in a period of approximately 20 years Residents of municipalities declaring stress zones”, as summarized by PSOE on its website.
The party is talking about it about 300,000 in Spain corporate housing for rentprovides coverage for 2.5 to 3% of households, compared to 9.3% on average in the European Union. In its latest report, the ESADE business school reduced that figure to 290,000 properties, representing 1.11% of the estimated 26 million properties.
The business calculates what needs to be done to reach the figures promised by the Executive: “If we want to reach the target of 20% of the total park in 20 years, we have to build as many housing estates in the next two years. decades, like everything produced every year for the past three years. Or what is the same: The social apartment park should grow every year by the total number we have been able to add to date.”.
Is it a viable goal?
ESADE believes that “It is almost impossible to reach the 20% target”” if the stock of public rental housing is expanded to less than 290,000 units per year. It’s considered “a goal that’s hard to imagine” in the study.
The main problem with building so many houses a year is, There is no development industry in Spain that can do this.. Without going any further, in 2021 contractors only applied for visas to begin construction of 108,895 properties. This figure includes free and protected residences, both for sale and for rent.
The other issue is that the raw material needed to make this challenge happen will be the finalist soil available. There is no definite land in locations with high rental demand and stressful markets. enough to build houses neither within the jurisdiction of public administrations nor less than private companies. For example, with its plan to build affordable rental housing in a public-private partnership, the Community of Madrid was only able to tender the construction of 6,600 apartments, some of which were not in the best locations. The problem this region has is that it has a large bag of land in new urban developments that take a long time to work and urbanize.
Suggestions to increase supply
As a solution to stimulate supply, the Catalan university proposes to give “density bonuses”, which will allow developers on the one hand. build more houses and square meters, as predicted by the urban planning of an area, In return for this for social leasing purposes.
The report also recommends: mobilize real estate held by large private owners. “The process of increasing the supply of rental housing can be accelerated by public tendering of approximately 20,000 homes from large property owners, with a 20% discount based on the rental price reference index, with the right to lease to autonomies and city councils. This will set the conditions,” ESADE states.
“Measures aimed at improving access to social leasing and mobilizing vacant housing are promising and moving in the right direction.. Committed to improving accessibility to social leasing and mobilizing vacant housing in Spain is a challenge with significant potential to transform the country’s housing landscape. In order to achieve social housing levels in Europe, it is crucial to set well-sized medium-term targets. prioritize short-term housing transformation, meet supply from major homeowners with negotiated discounts, and ensure that converted homes meet location and typology demands. It is also essential to work on urban planning that promotes equality of opportunity in increasingly diverse areas by investing in transport, health, education and green spaces.”