Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s flagship housing project, the Vive affordable rental plan, has for months been accumulating the vicissitudes of the first promotions delivered to tenants in Alcorcón. Since the successful bidders began to collect the keys, damage and breakdowns due to construction defects have accumulated, to the great dismay of the new neighbors who had been promised quality housing. The latest event was the rupture of a pipe inside one of the buildings, which caused the corridors to flood and leaks between floors, giving the impression that it was raining down. floor to another.
The pipeline rupture was not caused by rains, according to a Ministry of Housing spokesperson and confirmed by residents of the property. “The fault was resolved the same day and power was restored,” adds Housing, who indicates that the damage caused will be repaired and explains that the problem lay in “a joint joining the hot water pipe just before the meter of a dwelling”.
The neighbors are organizing themselves through a WhatsApp group in which they have reported, since the arrival of the first tenants in March, the numerous incidents that have occurred. The list is long and repetitive: elevators that don’t work, uneven floors, poorly finished furniture or drainage problems in garages that force cars to be taken out into the street to avoid damaging the sheet metal. Some were even more serious, such as the fall of a wall outside one of the ground floors in summer, an event which was explained by a supposed “sail effect” due to excessive wind. Less dangerous, but just as annoying, is the constant flooding of the land every time it rains heavily, as happened specifically in August and September, according to what neighbors also report and which can be seen in videos uploaded to social networks.
For each event, those affected must record the incident in a mobile phone application so that it can be remedied, but the accumulation of problems leads to delays which irritate residents. “They told us that we were going to get rapid and humanized attention,” protests one of the tenants, who indicates that many of the problems are not minor, but structural, such as, when it rains, the water in the house from the neighbor above. the balcony falls directly into his.
Figures and promises
The president of the Community of Madrid even promised the construction of 25,000 homes in 2019, while she was still a candidate. This figure gradually decreased over the years and the apartments were not delivered. The regional government’s current commitment is to have 10,500 ready by the end of the legislature. But at the moment there are only 581, according to data provided on Wednesday by the spokesperson for the Executive, Miguel Ángel García. Ayuso affirms that it is not social housing, but affordable, and the Community of Madrid is proud of its quality. In the case of Alcorcón, the houses “were built according to the industrialized construction model, a technique that brings important advances by introducing automation processes, reducing water and energy consumption, generating less emissions and waste and by allowing the incorporation of “robotization and digitalization techniques which improve execution times”, praised the press release published when the first goods were awarded.
The Housing Department also highlighted, with the handing over of the keys, the “large common areas with swimming pool, gym, changing rooms, multi-sport field, coworking room and green and leisure areas for children”. The reality is less apparent; The swimming pool, with a maximum depth of 1.40 meters, is rather small; the “coworking”, a small room which initially had no doors or windows. When they were installed, mold had already appeared. The “affordable” quality of the prices is also debated. Some tenants pay more than 1,000 euros, practically those of the free market, because the expenses of the neighborhood association and the property tax are added to the rent in the receipts.
From Madrid to the United States, via the Cayman Islands
The construction of the two Alcorcón developments – 274 apartments – was carried out by the Culmia company, winner of the lot offered by the Community of Madrid and whose ownership ultimately returned, after passing through the Cayman Islands, to the American fund Oaktree. In total, the construction of 2,900 housing units was awarded to it, as Culmia details on its website.
“We could not imagine construction defects like those that exist,” protests the mayor of Alcorcón, Candelaria Testa (PSOE), who recalls that the land on which the housing estates are built, in the southern expansion of the city, was transferred to the Regional Government 15 years ago, during the era of Esperanza Aguirre. The councilor also criticizes Ayuso’s refusal to declare the municipality a stress zone, as defended by the local government. Alcorcón threatens to take the IBI to court against the tenants and demands a “full assessment of the condition of the property”.
The Socialists govern in Alcorcón in coalition with Ganar Alcorcón and Más Madrid, all contrary to the model applied for the Vive plan. “It’s not about building for the sake of building, it’s about doing it well while guaranteeing rights,” protested the municipal councilor of Ganar Alcorcón, Raquel Rodríguez, in of announced nonsense”, censors Trinidad Castillo, from Más Madrid. The spokesperson for the party at the Madrid Assembly, Manuela Bergerot, summarizes: “Ayuso has done absolutely nothing for the right to housing in five years and the VIVE Plan is the emblem: they sold it as the most ambitious affordable housing plan in history. Europe and the only innovation is to bring flood-prone apartments to Madrid.
