Authorities admit “The Real Estate Law” is controversial, but insist on its social necessity

Authorities admit “The Real Estate Law” is controversial, but insist on its social necessity

David Lucas, the Secretary-General for Urban Agenda and Housing at the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (traditionally known as the Ministry of Development), admitted that the draft of the Government House Right Law was "controversial", but he was prepared to defend its necessity for solving urgent social problems.

“The first version of the new law caused active debate in the society. This is certainly not the law that can suit everyone, but we move towards the first law that will regulate the rights of homeowners at the national level.”

The project was approved by the Council of Ministers on February, the 1st, and sent to the Spanish Congress. It became the subject of heated discussions among all interest groups there.

The Secretary-General stands for the need for this law in order to end large-scale rental speculation, to protect public spaces, and to prevent vulnerable people from being evicted. In the end the law will guarantee the right to housing for every citizen of the country.

David Lucas adds: “In 45 years of democracy we have not been able to guarantee this basic right to our citizens. We solved many problems, but this one escaped our notice.”

A lot of money was spent on social housing in four decades, but the financial support was mostly spent on targeted construction of housing stock units rather than on large-scale assistance.

Only about 290,000 houses have been built over the years in this aspect. Public housing stock is only 2.5% of all real estate on the market in Spain. This is well below the EU average of 9.3%.

The Secretary-General expresses his hope that the project will be able to become a point of contact for both the state and the private sector.

A boost for the Spanish economy

Information for 2021 suggests that the real estate sector is among the most effective sectors in resisting the impacts of the pandemic. The market was able to recover quickly and reached pre-pandemic levels by early 2022.

The local market was able to end 2021 with 565,523 closed real estate transactions. This exceeds both the rate for 2018 and the rate for 2019 significantly.

With the attention to the primary housing sector about 69,000 units were put on the market by the third quarter of last year. This is by 12.8% more than in the same period of 2020.

Also 1,285,000 new jobs were created in the labor market.

David Lucas comments: "The sector is in a good position to grow on its own without the help of the state, and eventually to become the driving force of the Spanish economy."

The Secretary-General expresses confidence that the potential of the construction sector and the real estate market will be able to stimulate the growth of the entire Spanish economy at least for the next decade.

The state will continue to finance the sector in order to promote the construction of energy efficient real estate. The state budget will grant about 7,000,000,000 euros for this finance program.

The budget also includes an extensive program of housing renovation. Currently there are already more than 9 million housing units in need of repair in Spain.

Share
Subscribe to newsletter
Subscribe