Palma (EFE) housing in the Balearic Islands, where there are currently some 20,000 units at “affordable prices” missing.
A few weeks before the regional and municipal elections, the employers have edited a video in which they launch an “SOS Vivienda” in which they criticize the housing policy of the progressive Government of Francina Armengol (PSIB) and warn about the serious situation that is living in the Balearic Islands, where families take an average of 17.6 years to pay for a home compared to the Spanish average of 10 years.
Among other solutions, the businessmen propose growing at heights, direct public aid for buying and renting aimed at young people and the lower-middle class, reducing the property transfer tax, promoting subsidized housing and streamlining administrative procedures.
The Construction and Auxiliary Companies Commission of the Confederation of Business Associations of the Balearic Islands (CAEB) has presented this audiovisual campaign at a press conference attended by Óscar Carreras, president of the CAEB Construction Commission; Luis Martín, head of the Business Association of Real Estate Developers of the Balearic Islands (PROINBA), and Hans Lenz, president of the Balearic National and International Real Estate Association (ABINI).
There are no new homes below 300,000 euros
The video underlines that there are no new homes for less than 300,000 euros, denounces the lack of effective policies and shows statements by Armengol, Lluis Apesteguia, from Més per Mallorca, and Alberto Jarabo, from Unidas Podemos.
“The housing and urban development policy developed in recent years has only made the situation worse,” pointed out Martín, who referred to the lack of social housing on the islands and the slow pace of construction of developments such as the of Son Busquets in Palma.
Builders need “economic land” after the Balearic Islands have become the “record community” in the increase in land prices: up to 72% since 2015.
At this time, as they have specified, 20,000 homes are needed at a reasonable price on the four islands, either for rent or for purchase.
As for rent, the Balearic Islands also holds a “record” internationally. The islands, according to data from the employers, would need 40,000 rental homes to reach the average for the European Union (EU).
Prices on the islands, the most expensive in the entire country
The prices on the islands, for the purchase and rental of housing, are the most expensive in the entire country, they have reviewed.
Martín has insisted that the situation is “extremely serious”, so that “all political parties must become aware at once” to treat this situation “seriously and forcefully”.
“Enough of so much ideology and let’s get serious to work”, the president of PROINBA stated during his speech.
For his part, Carreras has declared that this “so negative panorama has solutions” that have been “invented for many years.”
Fifteen years ago, in the Balearic Islands there were housing policies regardless of whether the regional government was “progressive or conservative”, said Carrera, but after the crisis of 2009 and 2010 they have “disappeared”.
In this context, it has required the political formations to make a “great political pact” and to stop “threats and expropriations” and to “sit down” to study solutions “with the sector.”
Precisely, the employers do not want direct aid for businessmen, but “for those who need it”, such as young people and those families who have real difficulties to buy or rent a house, that is, the middle and lower classes.
The entry Constructoras de Baleares ask for a “great pact” because 20,000 affordable homes are missing was first published in EFE Noticias.