Housing crisis
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The Association of Builders and Developers in Malaga has presented a report by Culmia which shows the current housing needs in both Malaga city and province. The needs are calculated to respond to local demand, which is increasingly out of the market due to the escalating prices of homes for sale and rent.
The results of the report come after a demonstration that saw 15,000 people taking to the streets of Malaga city on Saturday 29 June to protest against the growing difficulties in accessing housing.
According to this study, Malaga is the second Andalusian city after Seville that requires a greater number of affordable rental homes to meet current needs, calculated on the basis of data on the ability of households to pay the mortgage or rent, among others.
Some 484 publicly-owned affordable homes (VPO) would have to be built in the city every year for the next two decades to balance supply and demand, which would require an annual investment of approximately ten million euros. The aim is to reach a total of 9,677 affordable housing units over the next twenty years, which would involve an investment of 202 million euros which would come from public-private partnerships.
In recent years the authorities have been aiming to sell public land to private companies that can build subsidised housing. However, such projects arouse little interest among developers and builders due to the conditions that are associated with them.
Across Malaga province the document states that at least 3,425 homes need to be built per year for the next twenty years, including the aid that could be provided for the purchase of free rental housing, privately promoted affordable housing, and those developed directly by the public administration, which would imply an annual investment of 124 million euros, of which 54% should come from public funding.
The Culmia study considers that the Junta de Andalucía should increase its subsidised housing construction budget. Currently, Andalucía allocates 0.18% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to public housing, and this document points out that it should be increased to 0.21% of the regional GDP, to reach an annual investment of 386.5 million euros.
In practice, this would mean that the Andalusian government's annual housing budget would rise by around 30 or 40%, according to Celso Gómez, director of analysis and strategy at Culmia, who described the regional government's investment effort in VPOs as "ridiculous and inefficient".
"Some things are being done well, but in general it is necessary to use the money better," he said and added that, "Malaga has a very big problem in terms of housing, more than other large cities of its level".
What has been done in recent years, in Celso Gómez's opinion, "is not enough" and a greater effort is needed from the administrations to relaunch housing at affordable prices. Gómez recalled that, on average, renters in Malaga spend 66.8% of their income on rent, a percentage that far exceeds the Andalusian average (49.3%) and is well above the national average (34.5%).
In view of the scarcity of land earmarked for VPO construction and the delay in the procedures to develop it, the head of Culmia has put forward an alternative and immediate solutions like the one announced in Madrid so that office buildings can be used as subsidised housing for 15 years, when they will become free rent. "It's a question of moving", concluded the head of strategy at Culmia.
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