ANA DEL BARRIO Madrid
Madrid
Updated Thursday, February 8, 2024-00:17
Works A new mini-city for Pozuelo de Alarcón: 5,500 homes, 2,900 officially protected
The Pozuelo de Alarcón City Council has launched an ambitious plan that
will revolutionize the housing sector in the northwest of the region
.
The new popular mayor, Paloma Tejero, will launch 82,257 square meters
on the market
, the largest offer of public land in the history of the municipality - the one with the highest per capita income in Spain - with the aim of increasing the supply of apartments.
The Pozuelera initiative is made up of three legs: a Municipal Housing Plan for rental at affordable prices; an offer of 113 plots of residential land for developers and individuals and a change in the ordinance, which authorizes the City Council to manage urban planning licenses
through external private offices
within a period of three months.
All of this is possible thanks to the Omnibus Law that the Community of Madrid approved in 2022, which modified the land law and allows
residences to be built on public land
, something that was not possible before.
The mayor of Pozuelo thus follows the mantra launched by the Madrid president,
Isabel Díaz Ayuso
, who has insisted on several occasions that this was going to be "the housing legislature."
Affordable housing
The first part of the project is based on putting out to public tender four buildable plots of 14,858 square meters to build 163 houses for
rent for young people
.
The four plots are located in different areas of the town: on Edgar Neville Street - in the City of the Image, near the Quirón Hospital -
55 protected rental apartments
will be built ; On Argentina Street -located in the area of polygon 7- another 33 will be built; On Murania Street - located behind the BP gas station in Pozuelo Estación - 25 residences will be built; and on Coca de la Piñera street - next to the Official Language School - another 50 will be built.
On this last piece of land there are several buildings that have been uninhabited for years, which
the successful construction company will have to demolish
.
Housing offer in Pozuelo
Here, a 90-square-meter housing development will be built with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open-plan kitchen and a garage, as well as common areas such as a pool and gardens. These apartments are intended
for young people between 18 and 30 years old who have been registered in the municipality three years previously
. The rental price will be limited to below 35% of the market price.
These four plots will be put out to public tender and will be assigned to the developer that presents the best project, for which technical criteria of energy efficiency and economic aspects will be assessed in which
the reduction of rental income for young people
will prevail . The idea is that the competition will be launched at the end of March so that the land can be awarded in the summer and that construction will last for two years.
Residential land offer
The second part of the plan consists of putting up for sale
a total of 67,399 square meters
of the Consistory's heritage land, of which 35,327 meters are buildable.
There will be four lots of 73 properties that will go out to public tender this year and another 40 lots that will do so in 2025. The great novelty of this offer is that they are small plots scattered throughout the town, to which neighbors will also be able to opt for encourage
self-promotion of single-family homes
.
The Pozuelo City Council has signed an agreement with the Community of Madrid to advertise and
provide transparency to these plots
through the land portal on the Internet.
In order to carry out all these ambitious projects, the local government has approved
a new ordinance on urban planning licenses
, which can be processed through private external offices, with the aim of managing them within a period of three months.
These urban collaborating entities (ECU) already operate in the city of Madrid and Pozuelo will be the
second city council in the region to implement them
. "This is the most liberal regulation in the Community," said Paloma Tejero with satisfaction.
From left To right, the Councilor for Housing, Miriam Picazo, the mayor of Pozuelo, Paloma Tejero and the president of Asprima, Carolina Roca, at the Pozuelo City Hall.
The new ordinance also
expands the responsible urban planning declaration regime
for works, installations and residential uses. According to the mayor, this streamlining is necessary since, in addition to these initiatives, Pozuelo will also face one of its largest urban developments: the Arpo project that will build 5,500 homes on land located on both sides of the M-40, at the height of the M-513.
The president of the Association of Real Estate Developers of Madrid (Asprima), Carolina Roca, valued positively that the Pozuelo City Council has consulted the sector and that the processing of licenses has been accelerated so that they do
not end up being a bottleneck
.
«It is important that public-private collaboration begins from the beginning and the drafting of the specifications.
This ordinance is a paradigm shift
in the granting of urban planning licenses,” declared Roca, during the presentation of the municipal plans to the developers.
Boost housing supply
At the event, the mayor insisted that the housing shortage is one of the most pressing headaches "in real Spain, the real problems because it prevents young people from becoming independent and starting a family." For this reason, she explained that her policies are going to focus on
lowering the price of housing
by increasing their number.
«It is about boosting supply, liberalizing land and supporting the construction sector, which favors the creation of new urban developments. "As opposed to those who prefer to intervene in the rental market and a
housing law that facilitates occupancy
, we support those who want to become independent or want to invest their savings in buying," he concluded.