Funcas warned that public participation in the promotion or rental of housing through tax incentives or demand-driven guarantees can have an impact “reduced efficiency” and a cost to public coffers, in addition to putting upward pressure on property prices and worsening inequalities.
In turn, Funcas considers that, taking into account the creation of new housing over the next five years, the need for new housing will still be very high, between 175,000 and 200,000 per year, but they consider that from 2032, the needs would gradually relax to reach a figure similar to the current one, around 100,000, in 2037.
In the Funcas study “Real estate market and housing policy in Spain”, published by the Economic and Social Think Tank, it is assured that the mismatch between supply and demand in the real estate market in the face of lack of housing supply New housing is the main housing problem in Spain, so measures are being called for to encourage supply.
Aniceto Zaragoza and Ramón Ibáñez explain that the disconnect between housing supply and demand is due to factors such as: lag with the creation of housing in the last two years, approximately 250,000 homes; the lack of suitable locations for empty homes that could be put on the market and their state of conservation, which would require significant rehabilitation; and a very significant and growing demand for housing as a second home, of at least 60,000 homes per year.
The authors predict that in recent years at least 100,000 new homes additional units per year, a figure that could rise to 150,000 homes if there were not too many restrictions.
“Without a significant increase in new housing construction, affordability will continue to deteriorate, particularly affecting young people and low- and middle-income families,” the experts warn.
The need for housing is very high
On the other hand, the Funcas study also warns that public interventions, if not carefully designed and executed, can distort the market, discourage private investment and fail to achieve the desired objectives of accessibility and affordability.
“Often, public participation is advocated in the promotion or rental of accommodation“This approach can lead to inappropriate incentives and sometimes lead to unsatisfactory results,” the experts say.
For this reason, the study’s coordinator, Santiago Carbó, advocates the combination of efficient management of developable land, the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing, adequate regulation of the rental market and the development of housing policies. sustainable financing contribute to a “more balanced and fairer real estate market”.
“Collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as effective urban planning, will also be essential to ensure equitable access to housing,” he adds.
Lack of building land
The study also highlights that one of the “Gordian knots” of the imbalance in the real estate market concerns building land.
Thus, Patricia Sánchez and Raymond Torres warn of the lack of land available for construction, both due to the limited availability of land suitable for the construction of affordable housing, as well as administrative obstacles, the slowness of land concession processes or due to the transfer to investment in free housing of land initially intended for protected housing.
“The approval of the draft Land law This would reduce legal uncertainty and develop new housing construction activities. Adequate land use planning is essential to ensure a sufficient supply of housing and moderate price increases,” the experts argue.
Similarly, they indicate that the perception of labor shortage This can also have a “chilling” effect and they see the shortage of labour in the construction sector as “worrying” because it can “slow down the creation of new housing supply”.
Finally, regarding the rental market, experts ask that the regulation does not create distortions, but rather seeks a balance that protects tenants without discourage ownersand the creation of a stable and predictable regulatory environment that encourages investment in the rental market, thereby increasing the supply of affordable rental housing.
