2023-04-15 09:39:47
He Government will modify the Land Law taking advantage of the processing in Congress of the new housing regulations agreed by the coalition Executive with ERC and Bildu. As confirmed by sources from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group, Moncloa “wants to give a promotion of protected housing in rent limited price“and it will do so through a provision in the new Housing law announced this Friday.
The reform will modify the percentages that land owners will have to reserve for subsidized housing. According to the Government’s plans, in the actions of new urbanization the minimum reserve will go from 30% to 40% of developable land. In the case of urbanization reform or renewal actions on unconsolidated urban land, it will change from 10% to 20%.
The text that will go to the Congress of Deputies through the Housing Law leaves an exception open: “It may exceptionally set or allow a lower reserve or exempt them for certain municipalities or actions, provided that, in the case of new urbanization actions, full compliance with the reserve within its territorial scope is guaranteed in the planning instrument of application and a distribution of its location respectful of the principle of social cohesion”, according to the document to which El Periódico de España has had access.
From the Ministry led by Raquel Sánchez they assure that this change in the transfer of land for subsidized housing could have been done through the modification of the Land Law currently underwaybut that they have preferred to do it through the Housing Law because “it makes more sense” within the policy carried out by the Executive.
What will happen if he goes ahead?
Daniel Cuervo, general secretary of the Association of Promoters and Builders of Spain (APC), explains that one of the immediate consequences of raising the minimum reserves for subsidized housing will be that “free housing will be much more expensive“.
The director of the association considers that this reform of subsidized housing would have to go hand in hand with updating the modules. What are the modules? The maximum price at which a protected home can be sold, which is set by each region and changes depending on the class of protection it has and its location. For example, in the Community of Madrid they have not been updated since 2008, being one of the great demands of the real estate sector in recent years.
This modification of the Land Law to favor the creation of subsidized housing may be without effect if the maximum sales prices are not raised. Because? Because construction costs have risen since 2008, reducing the margin left for developers, to the point of not wanting to build on them.
“If the prices of the modules depend on each autonomous community and are not updated, while the construction costs have increased, it prevents those lands from being put on charge. Since the sale prices are capped, they make the operation unfeasible and You have protected land that you cannot put on the market If the protected reserve land is going to be increased from 30% to 40%, It is urgent that all regions that have not updated do so“, concludes the general secretary of APC.
a pending promise
This punctual reform of the Land Law will be carried out regardless of the changes in the norm that the Executive has already underway. As reported by EPE in October of last year, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has been working for months to carry out a legislative modification to avoid the stoppage of urban development activity due to defects in form in the process.
The Government’s intention is “to combat the current problems suffered by all promoters, both public and private, addressing this problem of the processing of the hundreds of urban plans in which, due to judicial appeals, the general plans are declared null and void for aspects of form and non-substantial”. Precisely in recent years, judicial appeals have put an end to numerous planning instruments, such as the urban planning plans of cities such as Vigo, Santander, Castellón or Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The last change in its processing dates from December 13 of last year, when the rule arrived in the form of a preliminary draft to the Council of Ministers. Until last January 9, the bill was in the public information phase, receiving 107 allegations, 46 from environmental associations. The rest were from lawyers and architects, the College of Architects and Property Registrars, the governments of Galicia and Extremadura, the Madrid City Council, business associations and unions.
From the Garrigues law firm they described this modification of the existing regulation as “a milestone of great importance in our legal system to the extent that it would address the regulation of issues that arise with great recurrence in administrative and judicial practice”.
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