Spain faces a serious problem, especially in its main cities. The increase in the percentage of people choosing to rent after the 2008 bubble burst, along with price increases and their disconnection from wages, increased the average effort families spend to pay their rent. According to the idealista real estate portal, on average, Households allocate 30 percent of their income to pay rentbut where there is demand, this rate is much higher: reaching 33% in Madrid, 37% in Palma de Mallorca or 40% in Barcelona.
Average net income per householdWith data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), increased by around 23.5% Since 2015; While rental prices are increasing at the national level almost 74%Salaries are three times higher, according to real estate data platform Brains Real Estate. This does not constitute an accessibility problem since the housing supply is sufficient in many regions, but it creates problems for low-income people in regions where demand is high.
Juan VelayosHe is one of the most experienced managers in the real estate industry and is currently developing his consultancy, consultancy and investment activities within his own organization. boutiqueJV20, score Access to housing is “not only Spain’s biggest problem, but also one of the biggest problems in the developed world.”. David Martínez, CEO of developer Aedas Homes, also emphasizes that “there is a real need for housing” and warns that “its manufacture requires capital from outside Spain.” In the same line, Alejandra MoraThe co-founder of Anheros adds: “The housing crisis is not unique to Spain, it is a problem at the European level. The European Commission has given a mandate to the European Parliament to make the problem a political priority for the 2024 framework -2029 because employment, social It seriously affects other pillars such as participation and the health of democracy.
Create more offers
Many of the measures proposed by the industry, in addition to greater legal certainty, which will be discussed later, Expanding the rental housing stock at affordable prices, because the current one is very small. The formula recommended by experts is as follows: public-private collaborationIt is the granting of land by an administration to private companies to develop apartments to be rented at a limited pre-agreed price. “The real estate sector needs to take this bull by the horns, and the public sector needs to allow us to do this, because it is not capable of doing this on its own,” summarizes Juan Velayos.
David Martínez defends Live PlanThe public-private sector cooperation program of the Community of Madrid, in which it is a part, is “a A great example of what good functioning and collaboration between the public and private sectors should look like“. “This way developers can access public lands and bring affordable housing to the market, especially in the case of rental, which also allows young people to access affordable accommodation. “We are developing the project with great enthusiasm, demonstrating proven implementation capacity and positioning ourselves as one of the most relevant industrial partners of the Spanish real estate sector.”
According to Alejandra Mora, Spain’s first need is the formal and normative definition of cooperation between the public and private sectors in the field of affordable and social housing. “The definition should include talking about the terms of the two parts of the cooperation. Suppliers and managers must bring to the table the returns they are willing to work for and the legal structures that work for them. Not all capital is willing to operate with superficial rights or public privileges or to give up past profitability. The administration must ensure the support, budget, management and maintenance conditions of the park. There is no point in cooperation with a budget that has not reached 0.5 percent of GDP annually over the last decade. To make a comparison, the annual budget of the Vienna City Council, whose population is equal to Andalusia, is 2.5 billion euros. It’s not just about land transfer, more is needed.” Additionally, the Anheros partner underlines that Spain needs to standardize regulations: “The UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany have already regulated social housing providers, benefits have been public for years. and public financing circuits. “Also, for example, in Austria, there are Housing Laws that provide limited benefits.”
Mora is also seeking funding from both public and private funds. “There are 1,300 associations in the UK that provide social and affordable housing for 11% of the population. None of them have arisen from the capital of traditional property investment, as we are used to seeing in Spain. Putting these machines into operation can be done through a millionaire donationIn England some were born like this, or through decades of public budgets“, states the partner of Anheros, one of Spain’s largest specialists affordable housing, argues that housing is a “lucrative investment”: “It needs to continue like this so that we can have enormous amounts of money to cover the current budget deficit in Spain and Europe.” On the other hand, he recognizes that this business “cannot expect to generate double-digit returns.”
Finally, in terms of supply, the experts interviewed underline that while the supply of new housing is being created, there is also a need to supply more raw materials, that is, land, to build them. “We need to improve planning tools to get more land on the market. Not being able to produce more land where more construction needs to be built is absurd and this is the country’s greatest failure. households. If we increase supply and produce more land, house prices will fall and it will be a failure of the political class not to understand this,” concludes the former director of Neinor Homes, PwC or Alantra.
In the same line, David Martinezputs a duty on the public sector: “The development sector can help solve the problem of access to housing, but it needs the support of the public administration that develops the land, which is the raw material of housing. Moreover, it depends on the administrations” to facilitate the administrative process of housing production, to ensure security, certainty and credibility.” At this point, the Government in office is started the legislative process. confirm new one Land Law, but with the call for early elections, the departure of Isabel Pardo de Vera as Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, paralyzed the norm.
More legal security for owners
Miriam NasserResponsible for the legal field of Renters Insurance, he summarizes the problem of lack of supply as follows: “Many property owners, mostly small property owners, are already They do not want to rent their homes because they no longer receive support “The roots of this, according to Nasser, “lie in the numerous legislative changes in recent years.” “We find a protectionist trend on the part of the tenant and an increasing lack of protection on the part of the landlord,” he adds.
Among the factors that slow down the supply the most within the scope of the legislative changes brought by the Housing Law, the person responsible for the Rental Insurance legal field highlights the following: Greater obstacles when starting the evacuation procedure due to non-payment of rent or expiration of the contract: “This delays the recovery of possession of the house, increases the amount of monthly rent owed and causes losses to the landlord without any compensation.”
According to Miriam Nasser, the solution is “new legal changes to allow homeowners to feel supported by speedy justiceA regulation that allows the recovery of possession of the house and the rents due within a reasonable period of time, without unnecessary obstacles or delays depending on the situation of the tenant.” “In perception, it is essential that these measures go hand in hand with tax incentives.” In addition to rental income for landlords, this responsibility “Economic and social assistance is also provided, making it possible to alleviate the vulnerable situation of tenants without transferring it to the landlord,” he concludes.