Urban Agenda responds to Podemos that mortgage guarantees should be understood as another housing measure

Raquel Sánchez affirms that the Government will approve tomorrow the guarantees and the agreement with Defense to build affordable housing

MADRID, 8 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, responded this Monday to criticism from United We Can about the creation of a line of guarantees through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) to guarantee 20% of the mortgage of a first, and he explained that this measure must be understood "as an articulation of all the resources" that the Government has mobilized for housing.

"It is a good measure that cannot be read in isolation from the rest of the measures that we have implemented (...). We must be aware that there is a reality in our country and that is that many people want to choose to buy a home ", Sánchez said at a press conference in Moncloa after a meeting with the president, Pedro Sánchez, the first vice president and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and representatives of the sector.

With this response, the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda has thus avoided focusing "on that controversy or assessment by Podemos", alluding to the tweet published this Monday by the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra.

Belarra has commented on his profile on the social network that this measure, announced on Sunday by the Prime Minister, has already been promoted by the PP and Banco Santander, and has added that "it failed in the United Kingdom." For the Minister of Social Rights, this socialist proposal in terms of housing is "contrary to the general interest."

Despite criticism from his government partners, the Executive will take tomorrow to the Council of Ministers the approval of these lines of credit, which are expected to reach some 50,000 people. However, Sánchez specified in the press conference on Monday that, as it is a line of guarantees, all people who meet the requirements will be able to apply for them.

The President of the Government advanced that it is aimed at young people under 35 years of age with an annual income of less than 37,800 euros and for families with dependent children.

The Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda has specified that she hopes that, after approval by the Council of Ministers, the agreement between her portfolio and the ICO can be formalized "as soon as possible".

"There are other people who want to opt for the purchase, we cannot demonize the purchase in this country because there are many people who want to access it," he has settled.

However, the Government's objective, as the minister has admitted, is "to lay the foundations for a new housing model", built on "a true public park of affordable rental housing". The Executive's goal is to equalize the Spanish public housing stock, at 2.5%, up to the European average of 9%.

To this end, the Council of Ministers will also approve this Tuesday other housing measures related to affordable rentals announced in recent weeks by the Prime Minister.

The minister referred to a new agreement with the ICO worth 4,000 million euros for the construction of 43,000 affordable rental homes, the measures to mobilize 50,000 Sareb homes, or the 20,000 homes that will be built on the land of the Ministry of Defense through the State Land Entity (Sepes).

Sánchez highlighted in this press conference the "change of course" of the Sepes, which has become an "instrument of the Ministry's housing policies", endowed this year with a budget of 375 million euros.

The President of the Government has summoned this Monday Sánchez, Calviño and Robles, as well as representatives of Sepes, Sareb, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), the Institute of Housing, Infrastructure and Defense Equipment (Invied), in addition to other members of the third sector and the real estate sector.

"The president has invited all these fundamental players in the construction and real estate sectors to join this great national cause that concerns us all. We have gone from talking about speculation, land and luxury goods to talking about a right , the right to housing, and to guarantee life projects", stated the minister.

Raquel Sánchez has thanked the agents of the sector for their participation "during the entire process of elaboration of the Housing Law and the rest of the measures", and has assured that the Government has always "actively listened to all those who have something to say".

Sánchez added that this Monday's meeting has served to explain to the sector all the measures on which the Executive is working and the issues of the Housing Law.

"I think that this meeting has served for all of us to commit ourselves to working in the same direction and to maintain a commitment to have this process of active listening with them", the minister specified.

Likewise, it has guaranteed that Spain has "the legal resources, legal instruments and economic resources", in addition to the investment of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) to "respond" to housing problems.

Sánchez has also highlighted the commitment to the rehabilitation of buildings, which will have a contribution to the national GDP of 13,000 million euros.