Nobody is escapes what happened with Maricarmen, the 87-year-old woman evicted from the rental house where she lived in Retiro (Madrid), has been the trigger for thousands of protests related to the high cost of housing spread throughout Spain, such as the camping in Sol, the general strike of 11N and even the electoral advance.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on October 28 during an interview on the podcast ‘Keep it crappy‘ which would propose tax credits for small owners who opt for long-term rentals and freezing prices.
This would come after a regulation of the real estate market, so that citizens can easily access housing. And the policy that is being carried out, not only with the issue of rent but with the purchase, It will almost certainly become the axis around which the electoral programs of the main parties revolve.
In the case of the PSOE, it has been the leader of the Executive who has highlighted that these tax bonuses would be a way of rewarding those who keep their income stable or keep it in line with the increase in the cost of living.
Need to build protected housing
One of the aspects that Sánchez has focused on is the need to increase the stock of VPO (protected housing), warning that only between 5% and 6% of those currently being built are of this type or are sold at an affordable price.
“We have to build more housing and, by the way, more protected housing” since “if we continue to maintain the current proportion, we will be doing little.” He has also assured that “the real estate market will be regulated” using new mechanisms that make prices transparent, such as, for example, reference indices in areas where there is more demand for rental or purchase.
The information must be provided by a public administration and give citizens “the bargaining power” that they currently lack. Regulation has to go hand in hand with an increase in supply, he clarified, alleging that it was his Government that ended the ‘Golden Visa’.
These, also called golden visas, are a residence permit that a country grants to foreigners in exchange for them investing on a large scale in its territory (at least 500,000 euros in real estate), as explained by CaixaBank.
Long-term contracts also in the real estate market
Sánchez has highlighted that the debate on the long term contractsthe indefinite ones, “is on the table” and has indicated the new measures included in the housing decree that has been approved by the Council of Ministers and is waiting to go through the Permanent Deputation. These are automatic extensions, although special situations must be considered, such as if the owner needs the home, or wants to put it up for sale.
He defends the need to stop investment funds that “acquire housing to speculate” and has explained that the Maricarmen decree contains a definition of a vulture fund so that the application of this rule can be limited and abuses stopped.
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He has criticized that the administrations with powers are not using all the tools available to them in terms of housing, regretting that the RD (royal decrees) presented by the Government have not moved forward in Congress.