The central government and the regional executive signed a collaboration agreement this Thursday to co-finance the work of rehabilitation of 55 social housing units in Palma. This was communicated by the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, Jose Luis Mateoafter the meeting he had with the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, at the ministry’s headquarters.
The agreement provides that the rehabilitation of the 55 housing units, owned by the Balearic Housing Institute (Ibavi), It is financed between the organization itself, to the tune of 1.59 million euros, and the Ministry of Housing, which contributes 1.17 million.
According to the councilor, the agreement had already been negotiated previously and will allow the co-financing of the rehabilitation work on three multi-family residential buildings in Ibavi in Palma. -two buildings on Bogotá Street with a total of 48 housing units and one on Ferreria Street with seven housing units, Europa Press reports.
The agreement is part of the program to aid rehabilitation actions in the neighborhoods of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, aid program with European funds.
Mateo indicated, in statements to the media after the meeting, that he had perceived the minister as “receptive” to the Government’s approaches: “We left this first meeting with very good feelings”, which lasted an hour and a half .
He explained that they presented to the minister the real estate shock plan that they are carrying out in the Balearic Islands and the Safe Rental project, which they will present next week and with which they intend “these houses which remain empty are emerging” without neglecting the legal security of the owners.
The advisor called for reorienting public housing policies through new measures at national level aimed at encouraging more housing on the market, with more amenities for small owners, tax deductions and an increase in the supply of rental housing at affordable prices.
In addition, he defended the position of the Government in the face of the questioning by the Central Executive of several articles of Law 3/2024 on urgent measures in housing, approved by the Island Parliament, pending the meeting of the joint commission between the State Administration and the autonomous community which must negotiate the discrepancies reported.
Asked whether discrepancies remain regarding the declaration of stressed areas or the ceiling on rents allowed by the National Housing Law, Mateo said that “these discrepancies continue to exist” and defended “going into another direction, which basically implies “not intervening as much” as to facilitate, to provide instruments in which we give legal certainty to the owners.
“Let us also give legal security to tenants, may, with private initiative, undertake the construction and provision of housing to residents,” he added.
During the meeting, he also explained to the minister that he did not share the government’s “interventionist” policy. Government of Pedro Sánchez and that it is more effective to promote the rental market than not to warn with sanctions, taking into account the “singularities” of the Balearic Islands such as tourism and illegal rentals.
