In the week in which the Government has announced a public housing company, the real estate sector is clamoring for the approval once and for all of the reform of the Land Law and for the procedures for building new housing of all types to be expedited: social, affordable, free, rent and buy. Neither state company, nor Housing Law, nor rent caps… Their lawsuit claims that without land there is no housing and that it is urgent to enable it to begin to address the residential crisis in Spain.
The demand has become especially palpable these days, almost in response to the announcement by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezto launch a state entity that centralizes the construction and management of a public housing stock. In the sector they disagree about the effectiveness of this measure, however, there is complete agreement regarding the urgency of developable land and the need to move forward with the reform of the Land Law in Congress.
The rule has been stuck in the parliamentary process for months. The PSOE withdrew it hours before its vote in the Lower House due to the lack of support that risked its failure. The proposal introduced a substantial change in the processing of general urban planning plans, which until now can decline in their entirety due to the cancellation of a part of them. The new proposal intended to put an end to this situation to speed up the processes of municipal and regional urban planning, however, the rejection of Sumar and Podemos and the almost last-minute withdrawal of the PP ended up bringing it down. Weeks later, PSOE and PNV They agreed on a new bill to revive the text, but the socialists ended up withdrawing their signature while waiting to gather more support and since then it has been sleeping in some drawer in the Congress of Deputies.
In the real estate sector there is anger over the political use of a rule that they consider essential to promote the construction of new homes in the face of the current shortage of supply and warn that without serious reform, it will be difficult to make more product available to buyers and tenants. .
“In Spain there is capacity in the private sector to build many more homes, but it is essential to address the issue of land. There is a shortage of available land, what exists has a very high cost and the administrative processes to enable it further delay its making available “, say real estate sources consulted by EL MUNDO.
In the sector, they believe that there is capacity among developers and construction companies to increase the number of homes built annually by several tens of thousands, compared to the approximately 100,000 units that are now created each year, however, they demand a joint push by the administrations.
He Bank of Spain estimates that there is a deficit of 500,000 houses until 2025 to cover the growing demand and Funcas It estimates that to cover this deficit it would be necessary to invest almost five points of the national GDP, which is why it advocates public-private collaboration to address the challenge.