untitled design

Owners and opposition revolt against Armengol’s measure: “It is worrying that they want to expropriate homes”

The Balearic Government’s decision to initiate the mandatory transfer of 56 homes belonging to large owners to be used for social rents has unleashed criticism, anger and alerts among the owners themselves and local and national political opposition. They believe that such a measure generates legal insecurity, scares away investment and opens the door to the “expropriation” of real estate.

The measure of the Executive led by the socialist Francina Armengol intends to make use of these 56 homes for the next seven years, based on Law 5/2018 of June 19, which allows the island government to take over the unoccupied homes that it has been registering for months in a registry of large Forks.

The announcement made yesterday has provoked, among other things, the bloc reaction of the Popular Party. Your spokesperson, Josà © Luis MartÃnez-Almeida, considers that the measure is something “deeply wrong” and “bad management”, as well as “a bad message for the future.”

His partner and vice-secretary of Sectorial of the PP, Elvira Rodríguez, has warned of the effect on investment and described as “very worrying” that it is wanted “expropriate the use of houses”. “If we legalize the squattingWe control rents and expropriate the use of homes, I don’t know how investments will come to Spain. “In these decisions,” security is lost, “he added.

For her part, the spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, he has gone further in his comparison and has used the social network Twitter to launch his criticism. “Express yourself! Sánchez and Iglesias already have their partner test laboratory before taking out their Housing Law,” he wrote in a message. “Its failure in a public housing policy cannot be replaced by attacking private property. The more legal insecurity, the less investment,” he concludes.

 

On the part of the owners, the most severe reaction has come from the side of Asval, the Association of Rental Home Owners, which brings together more than 2,000 members and which considers, among other things, that “this measure supposes an attack on the right to private property”; which is” contrary to legal security “and” erodes the image of our country as an investment destination “; which generates” a lot of noise but they are not effective and always cause a reduction in the housing supply “and that this In this way, the “Balearic Government places on the owners their responsibility to provide public housing to vulnerable groups”.

Since association, the association that includes a good part of the Spanish Socimis, warns that Armengol’s announcement “endangers fundamental rights such as private property” and may generate “the opposite effect: create legal and institutional insecurity, scare away investors and make it more difficult to achieve the objective of creating a housing stock of sufficient quality, compatible with the environment, which meets the needs of the most vulnerable segments of the population “, in the words of Javier Basagoiti, president of the organization.

At the local level, Balearic Association of Real Estate Services (ABSI) has warned of the legal uncertainty unleashed by the measure. In a statement collected by Europa Press, the president of the entity, Antoni Gayà , has indicated that the Socialist Executive has implemented “the worst measure at the worst moment” (in the midst of the economic crisis generated by the pandemic) and has warned that it will reduce the investment interest of foreign capital, of great importance for an autonomous community like the Balearic Islands.

One of the most shared criticisms of initiatives of this type is their “lack of efficiency”, as pointed out Antonio Carroza, CEO of Safe Rental. “We applaud the policies aimed at allocating public land for the construction of social housing, however, we question the efficiency of depriving legal or physical persons of the use of their properties, finding it difficult for the Administration, in the situation it is in, can guarantee the proper use of these and also face fair prices, “he points out in statements to this newspaper.

It also adds that this type of policy “will cause a restriction of the rental market, driving away landlords” and will keep investment away. “With the imminent economic crisis derived from the current pandemic, with the destruction of the business fabric and the huge increase in unemployment, it would be like bleeding a patient with a fever, we will lower the fever, but we will lose the patient”, he compares.

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular