In a dismal panorama for access to housing, with skyrocketing rents and shanties and vans proliferating in different areas of the South, many as homes for tourism workers, Granadilla is in luck. If the forecasts are met, the year will end with 300 more apartments under an affordable rental regime, which may not exceed 5.5 euros per square meter; 6.5 with garage and storage room. Nor will it account for more than 30% of the tenants’ income.
This was announced yesterday by the fund that acquired the properties, Orion Rental, and confirmed by the Granadilla de Abona City Council. Specifically, the former have purchased through tender a housing development abandoned with the real estate crisis of 2008 and that was in the hands of Sareb, the so-called bad bank: the fund to which the toxic assets that ended up in the hands of the Government ended up. of the State after the rescues.
Two or three months to start the works
The general director of Private Equity, the parent company of Orion Rental, Enrique Guerra, explained that there are a total of 294 homes distributed in eight buildings, “of which two are ‘squatted’, the vast majority by those who were going to be the owners of the apartments until the crisis arrived and the works stopped. We are committed to maintaining them while the other six are being renovated and, then, transferring the ones that are finished while their apartments are being finished, to those who will return later.” The total disbursed in the purchase of the buildings is 7,360,500 euros. “Now what it is about is adapting them. We already have a license. We estimate that we can start the works in about two or three months and finish them this year,” added Enrique Guerra, who said that “the conditions for them to be classified as affordable rentals are set out in the law, both in price per square meter and the maximum that it can assume on the income of the tenants, who will be people from the working middle class, which is the one who needs them.”
“It is not goodism,” he said, “but it is evident that the tourism sector needs workers, which it now lacks, and that they must live nearby and in places where there are services and infrastructure,” as is the case in the town of Granadilla, where The properties are located in the Los Hinojeros area, near the municipal swimming pool.
390 euros for 60 square meters
According to calculations made based on the figures offered by the company, the rent for a 60 square meter apartment would be 330 euros without a garage and storage room and 390 euros with both. It must be taken into account that, currently, rents in the area are around 700 euros.
Municipal sources confirmed the data and recalled that in August of this same year the first meeting of the company’s managers took place with the mayor of Granadilla herself, Jennifer Miranda, and with the Councilor for Urban Planning, Óscar Delgado, with the intention of presenting them the project.
“Our main concern,” they explained, “was precisely what could happen to those who are currently living in part of the buildings, but we are reassured by the company’s intention to include them in the purchase and sale operation with Sareb, although the The Granadilla City Council only has urban planning powers in this matter. It is good news to incorporate affordable rental housing because it is necessary,” they added. Regarding the urbanization of the area – sidewalks, lighting, etc. – the corporation explained that “the commitment is that it be assumed by the buyers.”
