Uncertainties in the law are slowing the development of public housing

Housing in Spain is not in the best condition and the Access to Housing Act has not improved the situation due to the prevalence of regional legislation. Although the State has adopted the Access to Housing Act, which clearly defines the type of housing with a limited price, the possible prevalence of regional legislation devalues the established state regulation and creates differences between the various autonomous communities.

Experts in the field of housing

who participated in the Housing and Sustainable Development Council, at the VII National Congress of Registrars, agreed that the Right to Housing Act creates legal uncertainty due to the lack of clarity in the prevalence of the Act or the legislation of the Autonomous Communities. In this regard, Rocío Perteger, registrar and director of the Registrar's College Environmental Services, recalled that the Constitutional Court took up all the complaints of unconstitutionality of the Right to Housing Law four months after its entry into force, "opening the way to improvement and legal security".

How Felipe Iglesias Gonzalez explained

consultant at the law firm Uría & Menéndez, the Housing Law is a good attempt to regulate housing protection, but it is a missed opportunity because Article 16 establishes the predominance of the legislation of the Autonomous Communities. "Autonomies have exclusive powers in the field of urban planning. And prior to the Act's enactment, the State transferred funds but kept the money for itself because it has authority in the overall planning of economic activity and the establishment of constitutional rights and responsibilities, such as the right to decent and suitable housing. Therefore, there is a clear rivalry.".

The next aspect is the definition of

Section 16 of the Housing Act seeks to regulate sheltered housing. "Finally, Spain has a legal definition of sheltered housing applicable to all Autonomous Communities. Four-year plans have previously been transferred to the autonomies to which money has been transferred to finance their housing services, with the exception of the Basque country and Navarra, which are not a common regime ", he said. This changes with the new law, although there are nuances because the Act gives precedence to the legislation of the Autonomous Communities in the same article 16. In theory, the state now sets the parameters that define protected housing in Basque Country, Navarra, Catalonia and Madrid, some of which are very powerful. But it's not clear.".

The data problem

And finally, he turned his attention to the database of leases that the law provides for. "I think it would be better to include the contracts in the Property Register to get an accurate picture of the situation. Rental fraud in the rental industry is spectacular. This is one of the major modern fraudulent schemes. "

The link to a private plot of land

Another important aspect is the plot of land.

The law requires private land to be allocated for sheltered housing, nothing less than 50% of the dwellings created must be for rent. According to Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Vía Ágora and the Association of Real Estate Developers and Builders of Spain (APCE), "what the legislator is doing with 50% of the protected area, he is doing without considering what the autonomies are doing. In Madrid, for example, there is a problem with the price of the module, so it is impossible to fulfill the requirements, which condemns the use of land to speculation, above all because sheltered housing does not allow the inclusion of all the costs of infrastructure, which increases the cost in freely available housing. "

Social inequality

"What is being created now is a social inequality between autonomous communities, between those that have had the opportunity to update module prices and those that have not, such as Madrid, which has not updated them since 2008, despite the increase in the cost of materials and labor. This results in many activities to improve the situation of sheltered housing not being realized. "Eighty percent of the protected housing in the country was built by private developers while the interest subsidy interest or subsidies that used to be available disappeared," he said.

'Occupy' and renting

For Sergio Nasarre, a professor of civil law at the University of Rovira and Virgil, it is very sad to see "how we have gone from a society of owners to a society of occupiers. The law supports the idea that occupation is a residential solution, which is completely unacceptable. Furthermore, he explained that occupation is one of the main causes of homelessness recognized internationally. "When our laws say that people should inhabit the homes of others and that this will be protected to some extent by making the law more difficult, by requiring certificates, that is unacceptable as a housing policy and also contrary to private property," he said.

Transformation of real estate

On the other hand, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado believes that the real transformation of the real estate and construction sector will come when ESG criteria (environmental, social and governance) are applied in companies' business strategies, as they have the greatest impact on the environment. He explained that under the Paris Accords, companies must limit average growth to 2 points relative to pre-industrial temperatures and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In addition, he noted that it cannot be forgotten that the construction sector is responsible for 36% of the greenhouse gases currently emitted. Another significant impact of the sector is water consumption. For every square meter of building constructed, there is a consumption of six cubic meters, which is unbalanced. During operations in Andalusia, where water reserves in reservoirs are 30% of normal due to drought, shutdowns are expected that will affect the production system. Regarding personnel working in the real estate sector, he noted that 37% of employees are expected to retire in the next five years, and young workers are not coming in because the sector is not attractive and there was an error in the professional.