Malaga completes transfer of plots for 1,000 social housing rental flats

Malaga city council assigned the last of three unused plots of land to build over 1,000 social housing rental units for young people and over-65s with contracts for up to seven years on Monday.

The municipal housing institute (IMV) opened the call for proposals in December, inviting interested companies to submit their bids for a total of 14 sites across the city.

After awarding two of the three plots, one remained. On Monday, the city council finally assigned it to Genivs, a social housing management company for young people.

The temporary joint venture between construction company ASCH Infraestructuras y Servicios and the Casas foundation (a private, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting affordable rental housing) also bid for this plot. However, that offer did not reach the minimum score the IMV required.

Genivs will build more than 600 units on the second lot of plots. This land transfer tender offers the option of developing flats that, depending on their size, are classified as dwellings (approximately 70 square metres of constructed area) or accommodations (57.5 square metres of constructed area).

The five plots west of the Teatinos campus and at the new Cortijo Merino development (the former Amoniaco site), could yield 600 dwellings or 732 accommodations.

The city council's objective with this measure is to build social housing on vacant land designated for public facilities, adding more than 1,000 flats with rents of no more than ten euros per square metre.

Genivs offered a significant reduction in the rental prices, which helped it gain a higher score in the competition to acquire the land. It proposed a 21 per cent reduction compared to what the city council had initially calculated.

The IMV has already awarded the other two plots of land. The first, for 275 or 334 units, it awarded to Catalan foundation Salas in Sabadell. These plots are located in La Virreina (Calle Massenet 17), next to Avenida Juan XXIII (Calle Santa Matilde 6), in the centre of Churriana (Camino de la Gamera 3) and in El Retiro (Calle Tanzania 11).

The other lot comprises 286 homes or 348 accommodations. The joint venture between ASCH Infraestructuras y Servicios and the Casas foundation won this offer. This lot consists of five plots in Soliva, Cañada de los Cardos, the area near the Hospital Universitario and the Santa Inés neighborhood.

Construction will take several years. Once the developers sign over the land to each plot, they will have two months to submit the preliminary project plans and apply for the building permit. Then, they will have 30 months (two and a half years) to complete the housing from the date they obtain that permit from the urban planning department. The deadline for handing over the keys is three months from the completion of construction.

Of all the units, 60 per cent must go to young people under 35; the remainder to other groups, such as senior residents. Furthermore, at least 55 per cent must have one bedroom. The rest may have two bedrooms.

Common areas can take up 15 per cent of the usable floor area of each building, while commercial premises may not exceed ten per cent of the total built area of each development.

The companies will be responsible for cleaning and maintaining the common areas of each building, as well as providing energy and water services to those areas. Furthermore, tenants should not have to pay more than 15 per cent of the monthly rent, including storage units and parking spaces, in residential fees.