The Municipal Housing and Services Company (Muvisa) of La Laguna has released a new announcement to individuals and organisations that possess vacant and completed buildings, inviting them to present their bids for the purchase of these properties by the entity.
This year, Muvisa will allocate 4 million euros for these acquisitions, aiming to provide these homes for affordable rentals and to further expand the local housing supply, which already includes 70 homes where beneficiaries pay a maximum of 30% of their family income.
This initiative, with comprehensive information available at the link, is part of the entity’s strategic housing plan, which comprises the construction of new developments, the renovation of existing urbanisations, and continuous collaboration with municipal departments, also through various lines of aid, designed to gradually progress towards the goal of providing the town with an adequate public housing stock.
“The Housing and Social Welfare departments, Muvisa, and the Urban Planning Department have united efforts to tackle the housing situation in La Laguna,” stated Mayor Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, who noted that “we recognise the challenges and it’s a reality that extends beyond our territorial boundaries, also in terms of competency, but we cannot delay any longer.”
In addition to this strategic plan, “which is already underway given that these actions require extended procedures and to which we are committing substantial resources to enhance the habitability of existing urbanisations, we will present a detailed study on housing in La Laguna next month. This study has been commissioned from the General Foundation of the University of La Laguna and will serve as a foundation for making various decisions in this area,” the mayor said.
55 Million in Rehabilitation Plans
In this context, the Councillor for Housing and Land Use Planning, who is also the President of Muvisa, Adolfo Cordobés, recalls that the Municipal Company is overseeing 55 million euros for the rehabilitation of five privately owned housing estates that are over 50 years old. This includes co-financed ARRU and ERRP programmes that benefit more than 3,500 properties, and work is already underway on new construction projects for over 180 new homes, aiming to “achieve a municipal public housing stock that will also address the increasing public demand for sufficient options for affordable purchases.”
Alongside municipal investment and the programmes being executed through various agreements, there will be “new initiatives, which we will inform you about soon and which necessitate certain important planning actions, which are already well advanced and are a crucial step to access European and state funding, beyond the General Plan, the drafting of which we plan to put out to tender very shortly,” stated the councillor.
“Although we are currently working on a significant investment for the next municipal budgets (considering the spending rule),” Adolfo Cordobés explained, “the housing issue is a concern for us all, from the administrations to the market, owners, etc. We cannot address this solely with a local perspective without considering regulations, economic impacts, or usage.”
This is why, besides emphasising the significance of the detailed study from the FGULL, he remarked, “we welcome the recent allocation announced by the Government of the Canary Islands, which will assign 2 million euros throughout the Archipelago for acquisitions for affordable rental with the option to buy, aligned with the strategies we are employing in La Laguna. We continue to cooperate with the Cabildo de Tenerife and the State, in addition to planning future calls for community funds, all supported by a clear strategy backed by feasibility studies.”
Among the actions already implemented, Cordobés recalls that recently, “the Urban Planning Department approved the transfer of the urban development rights of the Public Land Exploitation Registry (PPS), which means we have reinvested over 4 million euros of profits obtained from urban development management into housing.”
The Autonomous Body has also provided Muvisa and the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI) with 3,500 square metres of municipal land at no cost for the construction of homes, consisting of six plots located in Finca España, La Cuesta, Valle Tabares, Tejina, and Taco, valued at nearly 1.8 million euros.
New Local Developments
In this respect, Muvisa’s CEO, Juan Ignacio Viciana, points out that these sums and allocations signify “a significant contribution to the execution of the new developments we have planned in the short and medium term, culminating in a total of 187 public housing units and representing an overall investment of more than 29 million euros.” These initiatives involve the construction of 50 new homes in Tejina, 29 in Finca España, 72 in Los Barriales (Taco), and an additional 36 homes in San Honorato – El Centurión.
The CEO highlights that, “given the limited housing supply in the market that we are observing, alongside the concerning issue of vacant homes, which we will learn more about in the FGULL housing report referenced by the mayor, the Board of Directors of Muvisa has recently approved the allocation of a portion of the future public housing supply to affordable sale, while also guaranteeing that, for those homes we continue to incorporate for rent, no family unit will pay more than 30% of its income.”
“We need to confront the growing reality for families with incomes, particularly those on minimum wage (estimated at 1 in 5 people), who encounter significant challenges in accessing the free housing market and are confronted with prices that impose an unaffordable burden,” Viciana stated.
This demographic receiving the SMI is in a deeply challenging position, as the administration must prioritise the most severe cases, namely individuals in social emergency or housing risk. They receive support through the Social Welfare Department in collaboration with Muvisa and various third sector entities, via a network of emergency housing resources, as well as through assistance with rent and mortgage payments, social and labour reintegration programmes, among others.
