The Sareb project, now moving ahead with its inaugural strategic plan since coming under state oversight in March last year, is shaping a broad agenda that pairs financial targets with a social mission. Alongside plans to restore value and streamline costs, the strategy adds a new push for social housing, aligning with a social sustainability principle adopted by government legislation in January 2022. The plan’s presentation is scheduled for the coming weeks, with the final date expected to coincide with the release of annual results, according to multiple sources.
Sareb’s newly framed social housing strategy centers on three key areas. First, the organization is identifying a large stock of homes and land that could be sold to autonomous communities for social use. The portfolio offered to autonomous regions and municipalities grew from about 4,000 parcels in 2013 to 15,000, with potential expansion of up to 5,000 more by 2021. Yet actual assignments have fallen far short of early ambitions, despite Sareb shouldering roughly half the cost to make properties habitable: only about 3,386 had reached this stage by June of the reported year.
The shortfall in transfers stems in part from local governments’ limited capacity to manage assets and from housing not being available in desired locations. To address this and to advance its overarching goal of asset disposal and taxpayer savings, Sareb is pursuing more sales to autonomous communities, a channel that has generated only around 400 transactions since inception. Negotiations with several autonomies are underway, with hopes that operations will occur in the near future.
To refine the sale process, Sareb is evaluating which administrations might purchase housing and whether the locations match their needs, ensuring livability and renovation requirements are met. A month ago, it announced a public tender valued at roughly 175 million euros to contract a firm responsible for comprehensive maintenance of its real estate assets, a contract that could be extended up to two years and then as much as five years.
land allocation
Another major component is transferring land owned by private developers to build and manage social rental housing, initially targeting between 10,000 and 15,000 units for a period of at least 50 years. To launch the necessary tender, Sareb engaged PwC for 386,937 euros to advise on the technical, legal, and economic feasibility. The first phase, concentrating on soil analysis and bid preparation, should wrap up in the coming weeks, followed by a second four-month phase to run the competition.
The approach mirrors models used by administrations such as the Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, and the Community of Madrid. Construction, financing, and operation risk would be borne by the project owner, with assets returning to their owners following land transfer. In principle, Sareb should wind down by November 2027, as mandated by law, though both the Government and the Fund for the Restructuring of Banks have left open the possibility of extension, a stance not confirmed by national sources at this time.
The third pillar of Sareb’s plan focuses on the social management of dwellings not yet transferred. By the end of June, Sareb held 1,243 social rental homes, many occupied by families associated with former contractors under pre-transfer agreements. In addition, last year, nearly 9,800 families living in homes they already own—most tenants, with 1,297 still in progress as of June—were supported.
The program offers tenants affordable rents set at 30% of household income and includes three-year contracts renewable for two additional years with specialist managers such as Servihabitat, Sogemedi, and Gesocin, who oversee livability and assist families in exiting vulnerability.
public monitoring
The effort to shape Sareb’s social housing support has gained momentum in recent months, underpinned by oversight from the Ministries of Economy and Transport. These ministries have coordinated the plan for about a year. The background traces back to Eurostat’s March 2021 decision that required Sareb to be treated as a public sector entity for accounting purposes, inflating Sareb’s reported debt by more than 34 billion and widening the deficit by roughly 10 billion.
The accounting decision followed a surge in losses (roughly 5.075 billion) since Sareb’s 2012 founding, which affected the company’s private equity and debt structure, mainly funded by the state and private banks. In response, a legislative amendment approved in March of the previous year permitted Sareb to acquire 4.24% of its capital at a symbolic price, lifting the state’s stake to about 50.14%. This move allows the government to assume responsibility for Sareb’s remaining debt should the financial burden overwhelm the state’s capacity to cover it.