It seemed like it was going to be the panacea to solve the situation of 10,500 beneficiary families public housing but has had “a little pull.” Around a 70% of tenants who have resided in an officially protected house for 25 years renounce access to ownership of these publicly owned properties. Although it was one of the star commitments of the previous Government of the pact of flowers –which crystallized in a decree January 23 of this year, prior to the regional elections in May that gave rise to the new Government between CC-PP–, the regulations have not had the expected success, highlights the current director of the Canary Islands Housing Institute (Icavi), the former mayor of San Mateo, Antonio Ortega.
Because? It is more expensive for tenants to pay the community as owners or to take charge of the maintenance of the buildings and their own homes than to continue as successful bidders, since it is Icavi that is responsible for all the arrangements in addition to subsidizing the lease, explains Ortega. They have verified this after launching the inherited decree, and for which they have already made three calls – since they must be quarterly according to the regulations – so that tenants can buy these homes: in March they took out 15 groups of houses in the province of Las Palmas and 17 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife; in June, five buildings in Las Palmas and 18 in Tenerife; and the last one was on December 5, with 17 groups in Las Palmas, five buildings in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and one individual home, which could be around, in this call alone, 1,100 houses in different municipalities.
The decree establishes that families who live in public housing can access their property in two cases: first, those who are renting a house awarded before the III Housing Plan (1996-1999), and the second, that they are under a purchase and sale regime prior to the I Housing Plan (1988-1991). This decree therefore affects all housing classified as officially protected. before 1996. This regulation was the first to be implemented by the Government of the Canary Islands in ten years and was made in order to fill the existing gap for the acquisition of these public housing, but far from being “the bomb” It has remained that only around 30% of the tenants have opted for it, Ortega points out.
Building abandonment
And he emphasizes that this entails an added problem that is very worrying for the current Government: they have detected in certain centers that the new owners are abandoning the buildings, either they do not agree to pay the community or they do not directly maintain the infrastructure in common areas, he emphasizes. Ortega gives as an example a group of homes in Corralejo (Fuerteventura) “which has damages that can be classified as structural” with the consequent danger for its inhabitants. And Icavi can no longer act there because the property is not theirs, so they are resorting, he specifies, to different aid like the old ones. ARRU (urban rehabilitation and regeneration areas) of the State Housing Plan for degraded areas or to European funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (MRR).
The director of Icavi affirms that they are complying with the decree of January 23, of which there is still one left fourth call, which “will be done or not” given the experience with these sales promotions.
For December 5, a letter was sent to the people who live in these housing groups explaining the documentation they must present. All calls have a deadline of twelve months to formalize the acquisition.
Purchase facilities
The Executive offers the homes at the reference price that the house had at the time of the award, that is, before 1996. In addition, tenants are given a 50% bonus on that reference amount and all the rents already paid are deducted from the remaining half. “These are rents that cannot exceed 12% of the salary of the successful bidder, and Icavi compensates the rest of the lease to Viscocan, which manages these homes,” he explains. Icavi’s annual expenditure on completing the rentals of these homes amounts to around 15 million euros. Therefore, the purchase of the property has a minimal cost for the tenants.
People who want to access housing must demonstrate that they occupy it regularly and permanently. the property of which he is awarded, that none of the members of the cohabitation unit own any other home or be up to date with the fee relating to the common expenses of the building.
The director of Icavi, having seen what he has seen, reflects that there are issues that recommend that public housing not pass into the hands of the tenants but rather that the ownership remain with the Autonomous Community. In this sense, the Executive is considering whether to include, in one of the decrees being prepared to mitigate the effects of the volcano in La Palma, and with which it is planned to allow public housing to be built on rural land, even on non-urban land. consolidated, measures so that the properties remain in the hands of the Autonomous Community.
More inspections to avoid fraud
“The inspection work in Housing has been null,” asserts the director of Icavi, Antonio Ortega, and announces that the objective of this legislature has been to implement a exhaustive control of the use of public housing with more inspections, although, for now, there is still not enough personnel to do so. Icavi will fill 72 vacancies due to the high volume of work it has to respond to the need for housing on the Islands, with more than 25,000 applications. He explains that there are many open fronts, for which they have approved a shock plan since they entered the Government after the May elections, with measures such as strengthening the management of the European MRR funds, in order to manage them before their execution period ends in June 2026, and with those who intend to carry out a thousand homes, or the development of the Canary Islands Housing Plan 2020-2025.
And among these measures, the inspection work is fundamental, he adds. «We all know irregular situations and we are going to try to regularize this, but the allocation of a home It can’t be a blank check. », he emphasizes. «We have found everything: households squattedpeople who rent their home because their situation has improved and they have another house, and their tenants also rent it to a third party, vacation homes…», account.
«We have to put order, I am very clear: when homes are being used without the right to do so, these resources are being taken away from the people who do need them. We have 25,000 people seeking housing in the Canary Islands, and we must act against those who do not comply,” he emphasizes. Between Icavi and the public company Visocan, the public park totals around 21,000 homes. Their intention is for it to grow with the push to build new properties and maintain the ones they have.
