Yesterday, on the television program LaSexta Xplica, there was a tense debate about access to housing in which Pascual Ariño, real estate investor and owner of 16 apartments, defended its business model based on the accumulation of properties. His arguments generated strong criticism from both experts, such as economist Gonzalo Bernardos, and social representatives present on set.
Ariño defended his career as an example of success, stating that started with no savings and took advantage of favorable financial conditions to obtain the 16 mortgages over the yearsafter using the rental income to cover housing expenses.
“It’s not greed, it’s that everyone wants to live better”
Ariño explained how he managed to build his real estate portfolio starting, according to him, from scratch: “I started with no savings, requesting a mortgage for a home.” Given these statements, the economist Gonzalo Bernardos questioned his words: “it is not true.” The investor justified himself: “I requested a 100% mortgage because I was a civil servant and I requested a loan for expenses.”
After this purchase, Ariño He put the house for rent, making great profits.: “The house pays for itself, I have money left over every year.” This model allowed him to acquire properties on a continuous basis, investing profits in new acquisitions.
For the investor, the key to success lies in financial education, something that, he stated, is lacking in most people: “People spend money on trips and whims. Not me, I reinvested. From one year to the next I had enough money to buy a home and I bought one in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016…”
The investor highlighted the opportunities of low mortgage rates in recent years: “Banks give you money at 2%, 3%… they have been giving money at 1%.” Faced with these words, Gonzalo Bernardos was blunt in his response, describing many of Ariño’s statements as “false”: “Please, public, do not believe it, it is not true.”
Ariño explained that a mortgage with installments of between 300 and 400 euros, covered by rents of 800 euros, generates a margin that not only facilitates new investments, but also ensures economic stability: “It’s not selfishness, it’s that my son can have a good education, that he doesn’t have health problems, that I can take good care of myself and have free time to be with my loved ones.”
“The world doesn’t work like that”
For her part, Karla Pisano, from the Socialist Housing Union of Euskal Herria, offered a critical and structural vision of the model defended by Ariño. According to the young woman, the idea that “Everyone can get there” is a myth: “The world doesn’t work like that. 99% of the population cannot.”
The young woman argued that the current economic system allows a minority to accumulate essential resources such as housing, while many people do not have access to a decent roof: “It is a failure that there are people who are dying in the streets while there are sufficient resources to “that housing is guaranteed”
From their perspective, these dynamics respond to a capitalist system “that has failed” in guaranteeing basic rights and whose resources “are kidnapped by the economic and political powers at their service.”
Pisano also emphasized that “The wealth of this society is produced by workers”not real estate speculators: “you don’t pick up the scraper to build the house.” In response, Pascual Ariño declared: “This year I have possibly paid more taxes than, perhaps, you have in your entire life” and added: “I have taken down bags of rubble, I have laid tiles…”. Pisano dismissed the comment, calling it a “kindergarten level of argument.”