Spain faces the huge challenge of strengthening its housing stock at social rent and at affordable prices to combat the housing emergency that exists in certain segments of society. According to a report prepared by social research and communications consultancy GAD3 for housing developer Culmia, There are 1.7 million houses in Spainaccounts for approximately 9% of the total. difficulties accessing homeeither because of the money they have to pay or because of their income level.
José Garcia MontalvoProfessor and director of the department of economics at Pompeu Fabra University and one of the country’s leading housing experts, pointed out during the presentation of the study that the accessibility problem is very limited: “The rent problem concentrated in the lowest income bracketsThis situation, where rent payments constitute more than half of their income, causes this segment of society to be quite oppressed. But geographically it is located in Madrid, Malaga, Palma and Ibiza and does not differ in any way from what is in Berlin, New York, London or San Francisco. “For the same and the same reasons.”
According to the GAD3 report for Culmia, 90% of households earning less than 1,000 Euros per month spend more than 50% of this income on paying rent. This figure drops to 51 percent for those earning between 1,000 and 1,500 euros, and to 35 percent for those earning between 1,500 and 2,000 euros. These figures show that accessibility problems are concentrated in these population layers, because from then on the average effort, the percentage of income allocated to rental decreases, decreases and insecurity disappears.
The above mentioned study ‘Access to housing and affordable rental needs’, is committed to three solutions to solve the housing problem in Spain. First, Building 442,000 homes social rentThese are practices that are aimed at the people who need them most in society and should be implemented by public administrations since they do not provide a significant return for the investor. The public will be able to rely on banks to partially or fully finance the construction and will be able to do this as quickly as possible instead of using its own resources. Requires approximately 61,000 million eurosIt corresponds to 13 times the amount to be allocated for housing in the 2023 General State Budget.
The second suggestion is Build 761,000 properties for affordable rentalIt focuses on a segment of the population that has income but cannot access the free market. The cost of rent for such housing is usually around 20% below market, and private capital is involved in construction because it offers an adjusted return (between 4% and 6%), but is safe and predictable. According to research, it is necessary 108 billion To build these houses the state should provide only 24%. The private sector will not need to accumulate a large capital of just 18.5 billion, because the rest will be financed by banks.
In this second line of affordable rentals, progress has been made in Spain. implementation of different public-private partnership plansThat the administration transfers land to developers and investment funds so that they can build apartments that will be rented at a pre-agreed below-market price. This is the case of Plan Vive in the Community of Madrid or Habitatge in Barcelona. The Valencian Community, Madrid City Council and Malaga City Council have similar projects, while other administrations, such as Andalusia, have also tried unsuccessfully.
The third line of action suggested by Culmia and GAD3: help buying a home It is aimed at people who can access a mortgage payment due to their economic profile but do not have the necessary savings. This is a system known as Held to Buy, created in the United Kingdom and recently implemented in Murcia, Galicia, Madrid and Andalusia. In these assistance-to-buy programs, the administration guarantees 15% to 20% of the cost of property acquisition, which is the amount of savings that financial institutions need to grant loans. The cost of these programs to the State is almost zero, because this is not a subsidy, but a guarantee that will not be applied if the loan payments are made correctly.
In addition to these three recommendations, the study suggests: install shielded enclosure module “improving the efficiency of public investments”, unlocking new land sectors and simplifying bureaucratic rehabilitation procedures, and providing construction assistance for the digitalization and industrialization of the sector.