More than half of the 20,000 new homes for social and affordable rental that the Government plans to build on military land will be in Madrid. The Council of Ministers plans to approve this Tuesday the agreement for the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to buy the land that currently belongs to Defense. The details of the operation, to which EL PAÍS has had access, include building 19,876 homes, according to estimates made by the Executive, in 36 towns located in 14 different communities and in the two autonomous cities.
The projections include, of the total, some 10,500 homes in Madrid. It is about some land in the southwest of the capital next to the historic Operation Camp, in which the Government contemplates another 10,700 homes that are not included in this new calculation because they are actions that are more advanced and were already part of the Plan of Affordable Rental Housing.
Of the 19,876 homes that are part of the project that will be presented this Tuesday, 2,376 are homes on finalist land and the remaining 17,500 are on non-finalist land. The distinction is important because, once the plots are incorporated into Sepes (the public land entity, dependent on the Ministry of Transport), those that are projected on finalist land could start their construction faster. The rest are pending various urban actions, from reclassification to urbanization of the land, which in principle will further delay the start of the works.
The latter is the case of the 10,500 homes contemplated in Madrid and also of those in the next community with the most estimated units. This is Catalonia, with 1,600 houses in the Santa Eulàlia barracks in Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona). On the other hand, in Castilla y León, where it is planned to build up to 1,516 apartments in five towns (Ávila, Valladolid, León, the town of Medina del Campo in Valladolid and Valverde de la Virgen in Leon), the majority are on land that is already finalists, totaling 1,146 houses. Among the lands of one type or another, there are also 1,000 or more estimated homes in Asturias and Murcia. And Melilla is very close to that figure, a striking amount given the limited territory.
No parcels in three communities
On the contrary, the plan does not contemplate any parcel in the Basque Country, nor in Navarra, nor in the Balearic Islands. The latter, one of the territories with the most stressed housing market, does, however, have some similar actions that are already underway within the current agreement of the Affordable Rental Housing Plan. Specifically, more than 700 homes on former military grounds in Palma and almost 50 in Maó (Menorca). These ongoing projects also include more than 850 flats in Seville (to which some 350 would be added in the new land that Transport will buy from Defensa), and more than 1,000 in Valencia, where no new land will be added, since in that community The new project only includes plots in two towns in Alicante (Alcoi and the provincial capital itself). After La Rioja (16 homes), the Valencian Community is, with 112 homes, the second territory with the fewest units, which contrasts with the fact that it is where the Government has made the most flats available to the Administrations through Sareb.
In total, the value of the land that Defense will dispose of is estimated at 514 million, as reported by EL PAÍS. Once the 21% VAT has been applied, it will mean a disbursement by Transport of close to 622 million, although government sources insist that these are maximum estimates. Especially those related to non-finalist soils, which must be better evaluated. For the finalists, who comprise 18 of the total 50 plots contemplated in the plan, some 66 million plus VAT will be paid.
The intention to build 20,000 homes on Defense land was announced on April 25 by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, during an appearance in the Senate. The starting signal for the project will finally be given this Tuesday at the last meeting of the Executive before the local and regional elections on May 28, although the subsequent actions and work will kick in for years. The 19,876 floors on military land, always according to preliminary estimates, are part of the Executive’s plan to strengthen the public and social rental park. The Government’s evaluation indicates that Spain currently has some 290,000 social flats, between 2.5% and 3% of the total number of homes and far behind the European average of 9%.
To reverse this situation, a plan for 100,000 homes was drawn up which, following the latest pre-election announcements, has already risen to 184,000 homes (initially the Government spoke of 183,000, but it has been recalculated slightly upwards). However, that project mixes existing houses with others that will take years to materialize. The ministry headed by Raquel Sánchez calculates that 68,000 are already inhabited, under development or signed to start shortly.
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