The Government will redefine the concept of 'empty house' to force owners to put their apartments up for rent

• Market: Housing auctions take on new life in the virtual world and search for the highest bidder

Harmonize regional housing regulations, including in fiscal terms, and encourage owners to put their empty homes on the rental market to reduce the pressure currently faced by tenants.

These are some of the objectives pursued by the new

the project of which is today being put out for public consultation by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to try to advance in the creation of an affordable rental housing stock.

Access to housing, whether owned or rented, has been one of the biggest social problems in Spain for decades, although in recent years it has been accentuated by the heat of the increase in rents and the difficulties in obtaining mortgage financing .

In addition, to the dynamics of the market is added the

that extends throughout the country and that, in practice, means that citizens are not considered equally when it comes to their rights or duties regarding housing.

The department led by

has launched several initiatives to try to tackle both problems - the administrative and the prices - although most are in very embryonic stages.

This is the case of the law that starts this Friday.

As the minister assured yesterday, the law "establishes a complete framework of action in favor of an offer" of rental housing at affordable prices and,

,

to adapt them to the new norm. once it is approved.

The project will be available for 15 days so that interested entities and organizations can make their contributions towards the configuration of the final text.

What is the 'empty house'

Among other developments, the law will address the definition of concepts such as the

or the

, with the aim of pushing owners to put their properties in the rental circuit.

Currently there is no single rating in Spain of what is considered an

, so it is impossible to quantify the number of properties in that situation.

In this way, the Executive intends to solve a double problem: correct the lack of meaning and increase the available supply.

The norm also aims to become a legal armor to shield the social function of housing and increase the reduced stock of public housing for social purposes, one of the "problems" that, according to Ábalos, characterize housing in Spain.

In this sense, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda yesterday presented the Special Social Housing Bulletin, which collects the evolution of the promotion of protected housing in Spain between 1981 and 2019.

According to this bulletin, in the last 40 years 21.6% of the houses built were protected;

Specifically, 2.37 million protected houses were built compared to 8.6 million free houses.

In 2019, only 1,031 protected rental homes were built.

In this period, the promotion of protected housing for rent "has been very limited", with an "extraordinarily low" percentage compared to that for sale.

.

Regarding the average annual spending in Spain on protected housing for the period 2007-2017, the bulletin reflects that it reached 0.22% of GDP, while the average spending of the 28 countries that make up the EU in that same period was 0.25%.

Regarding investment in housing according to the budgets of local entities, it registered "a certain rebound" since 2015, to reach 600 million euros in 2018. Last year, investment in aggregate housing of autonomous communities and city councils was 2,297, 4 millions

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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