Malaga mayor offers his solution to help solve city's housing crisis
Francisco de la Torre said that the city should not be declared a high-pressure area, contrary to central government's view, while debating the topic at the UGT forum
The UGT trade union held the last day of the housing forum at the NH hotel in Malaga on Wednesday. One of the last policy dialogues took place on that day - a discussion regarding the housing crisis, in which mayor Francisco de la Torre, secretary general for housing of the regional government Alicia Martínez, Alcorcón mayor Candelaria Testa and advisor to the Ministry of Housing Eduardo González de Molina participated.
De la Torre once again stressed what he believes to be the recipe to overcoming the housing crisis in Malaga: provide more land for development and build more housing, both free-market and social housing units. "Ideally, the market should be saturated with supply," he said, adding that, currently, there is a shortage "of 700,000 homes" in Spain.
The mayor of Alcorcón (Madrid region) refuted his proposal and said that more housing supply will not improve the situation.
The mayor of Malaga also highlighted another possible solution: imposing a tourist tax on overnight stays, the proceeds of which would go towards the construction of subsidised housing for families at risk of exclusion. De la Torre believes that this will simultaneously protect quality tourism.
The central government has been suggesting a different type of solution: to intervene in the price of rents through a law that declares a municipality a high-pressure area. Only 301 of the 8,132 municipalities in Spain have this label. However, as with the previous points, the city council and the regional government opposed the central government's stance.
De la Torre gave Barcelona as an example. He said that this approach only increases the number of applicants per flat, while landlords still end up renting "to people with higher incomes".
The secretary for housing of the regional government added that, in two years, 48,000 rented homes have been withdrawn in Barcelona and prices have risen. She said that "the focus should be on the lack of supply".
Defence of interventionism in rental prices
The mayor of Alcorcón is on the side of the central government when it comes to discussing intervention in rental prices. She stated that she has been trying to get the region of Madrid to declare Alcorcón as a high-pressure area. She highlighted the crisis by alluding to hard-working people who are still struggling to pay their rent. "If the market is broken, we have to intervene," she said. In addition, she corrected De la Torre and said that "Barcelona rents are falling by 8%".
The Ministry of Housing's advisor agreed that, thanks to interventionism, prices have been dropping in Catalonia. "When a rental is renewed, the price is maintained," González de Molina said, adding that the property owner gets a tax reduction of 5% in that case. "The owners are the winners. It is a regulation that generates tax incentives for them," he said.
