More advantages from the Valencian Government chaired by Carlos Mazón for promoters and builders at the expense of public assets. Last September, the head of the Consell already presented the new protected housing decree that increases the maximum price per module, going from 2,200 euros square meters to 2,400 euros.
Now, the Department of Housing has gone from temporarily transferring plots to developers so that they can build affordable rental housing with European aid that over the years reverts to the assets of the Generalitat to opting for the exchange formula by which the builder The land remains the property in exchange for a number of homes that is not specified in the specifications. This change, motivated mainly because the land transfer competitions have been void, may imply the loss of 25 million euros of European aid. Housing assures, however, that European funds will be redirected to other actions aimed at promoting affordable social rentals.
This is clear from the different documentation to which elDiario.es has had access through the Public Sector Contracting Platform in which all the exchange tenders have been published. According to this information, within the so-called Vive Plan presented months ago by Mazón to promote housing construction, the Generalitat, through the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (Evha), has put out to tender the sale by exchange of a series of publicly owned residential plotssome from the Generalitat itself and others from City Councils with which it has agreed on this procedure.
The Public Sector Contracting Platform has published the corresponding announcements offering interested private developers the possibility of submitting proposals to be awarded these plots, setting the deadline for submitting proposals until mid-March.
This procedure involves the transfer of ownership of said land to private developers, who must build homes subject to the legal protection regime established in the recently approved Decree 180/2024, of December 10, of the Consell, which regulates the regime. legal protection of public housing in the Valencian Community, all in exchange for a price in kind consisting of the subsequent delivery of a part (which will be established when the contract is awarded according to the proposal put forward by the bidder) of those homes already built to the Administration that owned the land.
On the one hand, the plots owned by the respective City Councils located in the municipalities of Sagunt, Xàbia, Vilajoiosa and Castelló de la Plana (close to a total of 19,700 m²) have been included in this exchange procedure, which are part of the which were deserted in November 2024 in the bidding procedure for the surface right called by the Evha, and where it was planned to build 248 homes of public protection, as there was no company interested in awarding them.
They were only awarded in said procedure to build publicly protected housing through surface rights (which does not imply the loss of ownership of the land for the administration) in the case of two of the actions planned in the municipalities of Benidorm and Valencia to the company Redes 2 Promotora Inversiones 2018 SL to build 91 and 78 homes respectively. Together, these actions were financed with some 32.6 million euros of European funds included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which must be executed and justified by mid-2026.
Furthermore, the plots that were also left empty in the previous tender in the municipalities of Benifaió, Puig and Valencia, intended to build 40, 80 and 14 homes respectively, have been left out (for the moment) from this exchange sale procedure.
On the other hand, the tender has also included the sale by exchange of a series of new plots (totaling nearly 42,000 m²) owned by the Generalitat, located in the municipalities of Alacant (in the areas of Ciudad de la Luz, Garbinet and Rabasa), Albal, Elx, Sant Joan d’Alacant, Sant Vicent del Raspeig and València, in which it is also intended that the promoters purchasers also build homes subject to the same regime, public housing, as well as other plots owned by the Torrevieja City Council – La Hoya Sector (which represent more than 37,000 m²).
In the specifications approved by Evha to establish the conditions established to sell all these plots, the total number of homes subject to the public protection regime that can be built is not determined. The fundamental obligations assumed by the promoters who acquire these plots, non-compliance with which is established as a resolutive condition of the sales contract, are the following: allocate them, within the established deadlines and in accordance with the project presented, exclusively for the construction of housing. subject to the current public protection regime, which may be sold freely, at the maximum price set in Decree 180/2024, to any individual who meets the maximum income conditions provided for in said regulation; not transmit them to third parties without prior authorization from the Generalitat; and not constitute any charge or encumbrance on said land. In addition, once the declaration of new construction is made, the part of the public protection housing built that corresponds to it (according to its offer) will be transmitted free of charge to the administration (Generalitat or City Council) as payment in kind of the sale price. of the soil provided.
For the socialist deputy, María José Salvador, the loss of European funds for the construction of affordable rental housing is “unacceptable” and adds: “The exchange formula that entails the loss of public assets is manifestly reckless. Build housing that will pass into private hands without limitation of public protection. Mazón’s housing policy focuses on addressing housing as a business and not as a right, moving away with the increase in the price of modules and the disqualification of protected housing, from guaranteeing the right to housing to those people who need access. to a home.”
Disadvantages of the exchange for administration
The negative consequences for the Generalitat when resorting to the exchange formula are varied. Firstly, in the case of the plots that had European financing as long as the housing was used for social rental through the land transfer mechanism, the aforementioned 25 million euros of European funds may be lost.
Secondly, the public housing that is built on said plots will be built on land that becomes definitively private property from the moment of sale. In application of the legal regime recently approved by the PP, the purchasers of said homes will only be obliged to keep them subject to the public protection regime for a maximum period of 15 years (it may be less if so determined by the Department), after the period they may be sold as free housing.
Furthermore, in the event of foreclosure of the mortgage established by the developer acquiring the plots to finance the promotion of the building for any legal reason (non-payment or insolvency), the credit entity that owns it may execute it and the buyer of the plot will be released from any obligation to comply with the resolutory condition established by the administration, so it will not be obliged to subject the homes that can be built on the plot to any public protection regime or to deliver any public housing to the administration.
Along the same lines, if the developer incurs bankruptcy for any legal reason, before proceeding to deliver the public housing committed to the administration, this will be considered by the commercial judge who directs the bankruptcy as a creditor. more (even if it has the resolutory condition registered). The consequence would be that, if there are no assets in the “bankruptcy estate” to pay all the promoter’s creditors, the Administration would definitively lose the plot (which it had already sold), as well as the right to the homes pledged as payment of the price in species.
Housing assures that European funds will be redirected so as not to lose them
Sources from the Department of Housing explain that the modality of the surface right has been changed to that of the exchange to “guarantee the viability of the tender.” In this sense, they state that “the surface right is for affordable rental housing, which is more in demand in large cities, and the exchange allows rental, rental with the option to buy and sale, these formats being compatible and a more viable formula in certain cases.” locations, which allows the tenders not to be deserted.”
To this end, as they have commented, the town councils that had plots that had been deserted in the previous tender, have modified the transfer agreement, in a plenary session, to allow these other bidding procedures that guarantee the viability of the construction of protected public housing. in their municipalities.
Regarding the exchange, “the specifications establish the minimum and maximum limits that the bidder can offer in his offer in homes or square meters over the value of the land; “That is one of the factors that will determine the award, given that it scores the greatest contribution to the administration.”
The European funds ensure that they are not lost: “Those that were previously assigned to surface rights (and which, therefore, can only be used for rental housing and cannot be applied to exchange tenders) are redirected to other projects , such as direct promotion actions of the Evha, or the call, which is open, for town councils. The objective is to be able to exhaust all the funds of this program financed by the Next Generation.”
#Mazón #entertains #developers #land #swaps #affordable #housing #leaves #million #dollars #air
