Spanish government approves over 200 million for public housing

The Spanish Government has approved a 201 million euro subsidy package for private developers building affordable rental housing, with an estimated 2,500 homes to be managed by Casa 47. The properties will remain protected housing in perpetuity and can only be rented at rates that do not exceed 30% of the household's income.

The Council of Ministers has approved a subsidy package worth **201 million euros** aimed at private developers who build affordable rental housing. Housing Minister **Isabel Rodríguez** estimated that the aid will allow around **2,500 homes** to be built, which will be managed by Casa 47, the public body created barely a year ago to drive the creation, management and delivery of this housing stock.

The formula is not new: the minister herself justified it by referring to article 25 of the housing law, which provides for this avenue of cooperation with the private sector. What changes is the scale and the instrument, which in this case takes the form of a direct subsidy to the developer.

## Thirty projects in several provinces

The subsidies will go to some thirty projects located in provinces such as **Málaga**, **Sevilla**, **Valencia**, **Cantabria** or **Guadalajara**, among others. The land on which they will be built already belongs to Casa 47, so the private developer does not have to purchase the plot: it receives the subsidy to build on public land.

The financial support can accompany the developer's investment up to a maximum of **60% of the capital required**. Projects that need greater backing will not be tendered as public-private partnerships but will be carried out directly by Casa 47.

## Rent capped at 30% of income

The homes built with these subsidies will be governed by the same conditions as the rest of the properties the public body already operates. They will remain protected housing in perpetuity and will be used exclusively for affordable renting, under a usage arrangement lasting **75 years** that starts with an initial 14-year agreement that can be extended.

Affordability is conditional on the rent not exceeding **30% of the combined income** of the household living in the home. According to Rodríguez, these restrictions make it possible to involve the private sector "but not at any price", and she argued that the right to housing "is guaranteed from the public sector".

## Casa 47 has activated 7,000 homes

The body has been operating for less than a year and, according to the ministry's figures, has activated more than **7,000 homes** across Spain. Its platform, called El portal de Casa 47, already offers **800 homes** for rent, a figure that has not been free of controversy due to the limited impact it has on the market. The ministry expects to add another **1,500 before the end of the year**.

The announcement comes in the middle of the pre-election campaign, just weeks before the general election on **29 November**, and forms part of the government's so-called "social Tuesdays", in which housing has antiestéticatured prominently. The effectiveness of the measure will depend on how many developers accept the framework: the 60% maximum coverage and the perpetual protected status limit the profit margin, which is precisely what the minister has defended as a guarantee that affordable renting will not depend on construction costs or the developer's markup.