- This initiative is aimed at boosting up the construction sector in order to build social houses and it is intended to intensify and double the efforts made by the different public bodies to enhance the chances to access a house.
- A consensus will be attained with the Autonomous Regions and the Municipalities about the selection criteria so that the land purchased may contribute to the territorial planning.
- The Minister of Housing has asked citizens to trust the Government although she said that the investments carried out by promoters and constructors are necessary in order to reactivate and the reconvert this sector.
- Beatriz Corredor announced that the Plan Renove to implement energy rehabilitation plans in 500,000 houses during this Legislature will be granted 2,000 million Euros p. a. by the Official Credit Institute.
The Minister of Housing, Beatriz Corredor, has analysed the status quo of the real estate market at present, during the Foro Cinco Dias, and she has gone through the Government’s strategy to face the situation in the housing sector, which she has defined as “a great crisis that cannot be concealed”.
The Minister has explained that “the main difficulty to build social houses is the little amount of vacant lots at a reasonable price, and the public entities and businessmen agree on this”. Thus, Corredor has announced that “we will provide land to build social houses”.
As to public land, an Inter-ministry Committee will be in charge of State-owned territories and the Government is already working with the Autonomous Regions and with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces in order to use municipal and regional vacant land for that same purpose. “But public land is not enough”, the Minister underlined.
Beatriz Corredor announced the elements of the action line that will be set forth by the Government “in order propitiate the use of the available land to build social houses through coordinated actions with the Autonomous Regions and with the Municipalities. This offer will soon bring about -according to Corredor- more social houses and a greater economic activity, which are doubtlessly the two priorities of the Government of Spain at present”. During the debate held later on she underlined that this is the purpose of this measure: “providing land to build public housing, as some Autonomous Regions do - namely, Murcia and the Canary Islands - instead of helping those companies that are facing financial difficulties. We are not intervening, that is what some say”, she remarked ironically.
Beatriz Corredor explained that this initiative, an initiative in which the Ministries of Economy and Housing have been working jointly since last May, will be implemented over the next four years and will be starting next October with the first public land purchase offer. This action will be developed by the public company Entidad Publica Empresarial de Suelo (SEPES), which depends on the Ministry of Housing and which will be in charge of buying the land and building the houses, by making an initial offer of 300 million Euros.
The Minister said that the Government, the Autonomous Regions and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces will attain a consensus about the selection criteria next September “so that the land bought may contribute efficiently to the territorial planning. We will give priority to those offers for lots that may be transformed immediately. And we will also give priority to those lands placed by the population centres with the highest demand”.
The bidding period will start next October and will last three months. SEPES will keep a purchase option for six months in order to carry out the compulsory economic viability study and to consider the offer. Besides, the Autonomous Regions and the corresponding Municipalities will play the main role in the committee that will be in charge of evaluating the different proposals. The purchase price will depend on the offer put forward by land sellers in each case, according to the social housing modules.
Trusting the Government
Beatriz Corredor referred to the general situation of the sector and asked citizens to trust the Government because “in order to overcome our difficult situation it is necessary to trust each other. Companies must be confident that the Government is making its best so that the Spanish real estate sector may grow in a balanced way, creating a strong market from the structural point of view”.
But the main aim of the Government, the Minister said, “is not trying to prevent this adjustment from happening, for it has proved to be necessary, absolutely necessary. The Government is paying attention to the interests of all those sectors that are suffering its consequences and it is trying to make up for its consequences in the market, mainly in the case of workers. But it is necessary for the corporate logic of this sector to walk hand in hand with the social need to access a decent place to live”, Beatriz Corredor said, and she went on saying that “the investments made by promoters and constructors are necessary in order to boost up and reconvert this sector”.
Central role of the financial sector
The Minister of Housing mentioned the financial sector because “it is essential for the financial entities to intervene, for they must accept their responsibility in the present situation and offer the necessary liquidity to companies so that the latter can face the upcoming challenges”. She also encouraged them to keep on cooperating with the Government to restore citizens’ confidence. “Citizen’s confidence, the strength of the Spanish financial system, professional behaviours and the diversification of the real estate companies will be essential in order to overcome this situation, just as essential as the budgetary policy implemented by the Government over the previous Legislature in order to enhance stability during this new period”.
Corredor was optimistic about this: “I have the sensation that financial entities are going to cooperate as much as their can with the new Housing Plan”.
Great crisis
Beatriz Corredor admitted that Spain “is facing a complex crisis that is particularly affecting the construction sector”. She referred to the company that opened the bankruptcy proceedings voluntarily. “This is not good news”, the Minister said and she went on saying that “the Government and I have always said that the growth of the real estate sector was excessive and unsustainable. Spain couldn’t face the dramatic increase of the prices of housing any longer; Spain couldn’t face the frantic building activity of the last few years any more”.
After having made this evaluation she said “it is our duty to find the chances the current situation is offering us in order to carry out the necessary reforms in the housing sector”, as this was aimed at attaining “a sustainable development by implementing structural policies that may change our productive model, which is excessively dependent on the construction sector”.
Measures implemented by the Government
The Minister went through the main action lines of the State Housing Plan 2009-2012, which should come into force by the beginning of 2009; for the Government and the Autonomous Regions -“which will practically be the co-writers of the plan” - had already started to design it. Its three main axes will be the promotion of social housing, rentals and refurbishing.
The Government intends to build one and a half million of social houses over the next ten years, 40% of these houses will be set aside to let. Besides, Corredor explained that “the promotion of social housing rentals is intended to attain a medium-term complementary purpose: the creation of a stable rental market, which will be at the disposal of Public Organisms”. In order to improve the financing chances of those buildings that were built on a on public land under a surface right regime, the Minister announced that “we are already working with the Ministries of Economy and Justice to adapt the necessary regulations in order to allow the securitization of mortgages on this type of buildings; we intend to encourage the participation of companies and the supply of real estate investment funds in order to finance these type of houses”.
Beatriz Corredor said that the Government will put forward the corresponding bill drafts in order to reform the Rules of Civil Law Procedure and the Law on Urban Rentals over the next few days, so as to promote private rental. “Our aim –she said- is to set up procedural measures in order to accelerate evictions and the unpaid rental claims and to speed up the solution of rental conflicts, without damaging the legal guarantees of tenants”.
House refurbishing and renewal in towns and villages
The Minister has stated her compromise to promote refurbishing and she said that for her it was more than a mere personal matter: “it forms part of my firm conviction that it brings about a wide range of economic, corporate and social solutions that we cannot ignore. And this shows at three levels, energy efficiency and accessibility, the improvement of the structure of decayed buildings and the renewal of decayed town quarters”.
The Plan Renove, promoted by the Ministry of Housing, will be one of the main tools in order to achieve these purposes. It will be put forward at the Council of Ministers by the end of the year and the Minister has announced that it will be granted 2,000 million Euros p.a. by the Official Credit Institute, in order to refurbish 500,000 houses during this Legislature.
Rural areas will also benefit from this renewal, for they stretch over 90% of the national territory and 40% of our population live there. The main tools to implement this plan, she said, will be the Holistic Refurbishing Plans, which form part of the Law on the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas. These plans will be managed by the Inter-ministry Committee for Rural Development.
By Maria L. de Castro
web@costaluzlawyers.es
www.costaluzlawyers.es
Taken from:
www.la-moncloa.es/IDIOMAS/9/ServiciosdePrensa/NotasPrensa/MPR/ntpr20080723OfertaPubVivienda.htm