The Governing Council of the Community Council approved the allocation of an additional 15 million from the PREE5000 Program for the rehabilitation of housing in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, which represents the fourth time that it has expanded the credit, reaching almost 60 million euros in aid, as announced by the Minister of Development, Nacho Hernando. The objective is to respond to the almost 700 pending applications for this aid, in order to reach as many people and families as possible.
This aid programme started with an initial call for 5.5 million euros European funds “Next Generation”which was initially the contribution that corresponded to Castilla-La Mancha according to the criteria for the distribution of funds carried out by the IDAE.
“Given the good reception of this program and the efficient management of these funds, the need to request three additional extensions from the IDAE has emerged, reaching a total of 23.5 million euros in the previous call, quadrupling the funds,” the ministry’s advisor stressed.
THE The first extension was completed with almost five million eurosin May 2023; the second, with 6.2, in September of the same year; and the third increase, of 6.7 million, in December of the same 2023. Given the increase in requests, the Commission requested this aid again in March 2024, for an amount of 19.5 million euros.
The regional head of Development stressed that Castilla-La Mancha is a leader in the management of these European funds, both in terms of budget and number of requests. “We process at a speed twice the national average, according to IDAE data,” he assured.
Eligible actions are established in two large groups: global actions in existing buildings intended for housing, of single-family and collective residential type; and actions on one or more dwellings in a building used for collective housing, that is to say in apartments or individual apartments.
In turn, within these two options, a wide range of eligible actions are distributed which can be grouped into improving the energy efficiency of the building envelope and improving the energy efficiency and renewable energies in thermal heating installations. air conditioning, ventilation and domestic hot water.
These actions can only be carried out in buildings existing before 2007 and certain measures must be obtained. objectives for improving the total energy rating of the building and reduction of non-renewable primary energy consumption. Only actions by final beneficiaries of the aid initiated after the date of registration of the aid application will be admitted. Aid of 100 percent can be obtained and there is no maximum aid limit. In the previous call, the average aid was EUR 41,142 per rehabilitated dwelling.
Houses in the Polygon
On the other hand, the Ministry of Development, which is reformulating the construction project of 316 homes in the Polígono district of Toledo under a rental regime where there was no competition, it is studying which lands it can rent and which ones it will transform so that the offer is for sale, something very similar to what was already proposed a few months ago in Guadalajara.
The adviser stressed that in addition to the changes that must be made to any build-to-rent operation, his ministry is testing the market to see “how much additional land needs to be put up for sale.”
“We detect that there are people who want to buy. Today, a mortgage is cheaper than renting and so we need to be able to reach everyone, not only those who have a much more temporary approach and prefer a rental option, but also respond to those who “They grew up in this area or another neighborhood of the city and they already want to emancipate themselves, but with the certainty of wanting to buy something more in the long term,” he said.
More state media
The Government of Castilla-La Mancha considers that more financing instruments are necessary to solve the housing problem, said the regional director of Development, Nacho Hernando, responding to the request of the Minister of the branch, Isabel Rodríguezwhich, in addition to demanding a State Pact on Housing, asked regional governments and municipalities to intensify their efforts in this area.
As for the future National Housing Plan He demanded that this new document not only provide answers to the “strongest” demands of the country, such as those of Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, but also include tools that shed light on solutions in smaller and more rural cities.
“It does not have to be a metropolitan housing plan, but rather a state plan. And Spain is infinitely more complex than the difficulties that the large metropolitan cities of the main economic and demographic centers of our country may have,” he said.
On the other hand, the head of Development of Castilla-La Mancha emphasized the problems that have not worked, highlighting “the great struggle that there can be at this time for projects such as the project to build 316 homes in the neighborhood to move forward.” Toledo of the Polígono on a rental basis that has been abandoned, which have more to do with if Christine Lagarde commits to lowering interest rates than anything else,” to facilitate better financing.
“I know that these efforts are underway and, therefore, the only thing we have to see is whether these efforts can arrive in time from the ministry, because we need more funding from ICObecause we have the sword of Damocles: these houses must be built by June 2026. In this sense, he is in favour of setting different deadlines for the implementation of European aid.
Finally, and among the issues that he considers necessary to amend, Hernando asked the government partner of Pedro Sánchez, Sumar, who “does not put spokes in the wheel”since it is in favour of the possibility of using private land in places where the housing market is tight and where public administrations do not have public land, in order to be able to carry out the construction of housing that allows them to offer affordable rents.
