A deputy councilor of Ayuso defends that permanent protected housing “degrades” buildings and “deteriorates” neighborhoods

The government of the Community of Madrid, which announced this Wednesday a law that will allow 1.8 million square meters of land to be released to convert office premises into 20,000 affordable rental homes protected for 15 years, believes that opting to permanently protect social housing from Entering the free real estate market, and thus preventing its private exploitation, “degrades the buildings” and “deteriorates the neighborhoods.” This thesis, defended at the end of May by the deputy minister of housing, transport and infrastructure, José María García, in the Assembly, in practice feeds the price bubble that is devastating the region, according to the opposition, since the residences can end up advertised in real estate portals to be inhabited by the highest bidder. Madrid did not have any homes with permanent protection at the end of 2023, according to official data, while the Basque Country had 55,000.

“What we are looking for is the real social elevator, in which social integration occurs,” García argued in a parliamentary appearance in which he defended that the sale of thousands of homes to the “vulnerable” families who lived in them had allowed “to provide future generations with life opportunities.” This senior official from the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso stated that “that is the objective of having a public social housing stock, not in itself to seek permanent protection of the entire social housing stock, [o dedicar] all public resources to ensure that all access to housing is public.” And then he concluded that “in the end, what this generates is the survival over time of a model that ends up degrading the quality of buildings, deteriorating neighborhoods, and finally harming families” (…) which “It entails the degradation of cities and curtails the life opportunities of Madrid residents.”

García believed that the encouragement to take care of one’s own assets is necessary, and recalled that thanks to this policy thousands of homeless families had become homeowners. His words, however, contrasted that May day with those of Michaela Kauer, who intervened immediately after him to defend the Vienna model. In the capital of Austria, 58% of the inhabitants live in public and social residences thanks, among others, to Wiener Wohnen, a municipal public company with 4,000 employees that manages 220,000 apartments. In contrast to the fears expressed by the regional deputy councilor, Vienna was in 2023 the city with the highest quality of life in the world, according to the livability ranking of The Economist.

“The few cities that have made the decision to sell public housing have ended up having a housing crisis,” said Kauer in an interview with EL PAÍS in which she was surprised because in May, to rent in Madrid, you would have to pay more than 19 euros per square meteraccording to the specialized portal Idealisticand dedicate more than 60% of the minimum wage to live in a 45 square meter apartment.

“Madrid has to start on the path to Vienna and stop insisting on a failed and exclusive model that is very expensive for the people of Madrid,” says Jorge Moruno, a deputy for Más Madrid. “To move towards a housing model that works, we must do the opposite of what the PP has been doing,” he says. “The main provider of housing to the population, instead of the market, has to be the public sector and the social sector: housing protected from the market on a permanent basis, quality and cheap public housing.”

Although the Díaz Ayuso government limited the words of its senior official to a personal opinion, the truth is that the facts and data certify that this is the government’s policy.

Thus, the Executive admitted in a parliamentary response to Moruno that at the end of 2023 it did not have any housing with permanent protection in the region. The data contrasts with that of the Basque Country, where 55,500 of the 69,000 officially protected homes, public and private, They have a permanent qualification to “avoid any type of speculation on these properties.” And the explanations given by the regional government are very similar to the opinion expressed by García in Parliament.

Why is it that Madrid does not opt ​​for permanent protection? “Because it produces harmful effects in the medium and long term, building and insecurity problems,” answers a government spokesperson, who has celebrated that the Constitutional Court annulled article 16 of the state housing law, which established the permanent nature of the protection of housing protected from the free market, because the State cannot dictate regulations “with the sole purpose of creating supplementary law to that of the Autonomous Communities in matters of their exclusive competence.”

What happens to protected housing when the protection period ends? “That they are free because public protection expires. They can continue to be enjoyed, sold or rented because it is a property right,” responds the same interlocutor.

Offices converted into housing

As a result, protected public housing can be sold even during the protected period (at a maximum price already assessed), or freely once the protection period has expired. And rental tenants can see their rent increase dramatically when that time is up.

In this context, the spokesperson for the regional government, Miguel Ángel García Martín, announced this Wednesday a new law to transform 20,000 offices into new affordable rental housing “subject to some public protection.” City councils will have up to four months to decide their application. If they continue, a period of two years is allowed to request the license and a maximum of three to execute the work. It may be applied to vacant plots or existing buildings, as long as it is to the entire infrastructure.

“The term of protection is fifteen years,” said the regional spokesperson. “Once they are no longer under protection, the homes can continue to be used for residential purposes.” That is, they will no longer be protected, and the rent will no longer have to be affordable. It may be set depending on the market.

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