Housing crisis
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Pilar R. Quirós
Malaga
Friday, 27 September 2024, 17:06
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No one doubts the political views of Carmen Casero as the councillor responsible for city planning (Urbanismo) in Malaga, but what no one expected in the ordinary plenary session this September was that she would be able to turn around opposition group PSOE's threat to go to court over the issue of tourist flats and the council ruling that they should all have an independent entrance. Casero changed tack, recognising that, although PSOE was not accepting any of the amendments to her initiative on housing, she might gain some agreement across all parties. Thus she managed to get the PP group to approve a rather exceptional declaration at the plenary: that Malaga city council "acknowledges the serious situation of tension in the rental market and the sale and purchase of housing in the city", and the second part which is striking: "and demands that the council and the Junta take effective measures to reverse this situation." PP, PSOE and Con Málaga all voted in favour and Vox, with two councillors out of 31, voted against.
So, the PP governing team for Malaga has started the political year by acknowledging problems - an interesting new development. Firstly, that there are plagues of rats, something they have been denying for years, and secondly, the serious housing problem in Malaga city and demanding that the regional government take "effective measures" to reverse it. This change of stance, however, does not mean the ruling party is giving in on all issues. This summer Malaga's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, and Casero laid out the new instruction for tourist houses to have an independent entrance and supplies in order to be legalised for letting. At the plenary Casero also stated that the 1,000 plus cancellations of declarations of responsibility to legalise tourist flats that were due to be cancelled in June now numbered 1,500 as more had been added to the list. She also reminded the meeting that more than 5,000 homes had been built in recent years, another 1,000 were now being built and an additional 1000+ had just been put out to tender.
It is precisely this instruction from June that is the bone of contention for PSOE. Dani Pérez, as leader of the socialist group within the council, bases his threat to go to court against the governing PP team on this instruction. Pérez argues that, since the instruction is based on the PGOU (city's plans) of 2011, then it is the PGOU that should have been modified to include all tourist dwellings in Malaga city to have independent access, not just an instruction drawn up by Urbanismo as this had no legal standing. This point was rebutted by Casero, who pointed out that the aforementioned instruction had as its legal basis the Junta's decree on tourist dwellings from February of this year, and that it had no reason to exist without that decree.
Pérez emphasised that in the last decade 50,000 Malaga residents had been forced to move out of the city, the price of housing had risen by 107% and there were 12,500 tourist homes, which is why he demanded that Malaga be declared a city under rental tension, "in the face of the housing drama we must respond and you are not doing so." Casero, for her part, asked him to be responsible when writing a motion "because of the inaccuracies in the body of the motion", while saying that they could only implement the instruction as a result of the Junta's decree of February 2024, "since the decree of 2016 (when the Junta was governed by the socialists) did not allow it, they could have modified it and they did not, from those waters comes this mud", she said. She then mentioned the investment of 38 million euros of municipal money going into the 1,000 VPO homes (social housing) that are being built and the 1,000 put out to tender on Wednesday this week. "We are busy, aware that we have to tackle a problem, but don't try to maliciously say that it is only a Malaga issue," Casero told Pérez, while the latter accused her of "dragging down and stealing the future from the people of Malaga". Pérez added a suggestion to the mayor: "ask the president of the Junta to do something besides whining."
The spokesman for Con Málaga (a local coalition of two left-wing parties: Izquierda Unida and Podemos), Nicolás Sguiglia, reiterated his argument that De la Torre "is the mayor of speculators" and made a list of companies dedicated to renting tourist homes, and criticised the mayor for not knowing how many illegal flats there are in Malaga. De la Torre took up the gauntlet of criticism and invited him for a chat to explain how he "works for all the people of Malaga, for those who have the least and need the most", an offer that the Podemos party member accepted.
The deputy spokesperson for Vox, Yolanda Gómez, criticised PSOE for now wanting to ban tourist flats backdated to the Junta decree, and spoke up about the deregulation that, in her opinion, abounds in this sector, "the Junta has caused this problem." She also asked Dani Pérez to push for central government to repeal "the Housing Law that intervenes in rental prices and facilitates squatting."
After so much debate, only two things became clear. firstly, that Malaga city hall and the PP as its governing team recognise the serious housing problem. Secondly, that the PSOE group will, according to Pérez, file an administrative appeal against Malaga council about the legality of the June instruction regarding tourist flats needing an independent entrance.
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