Builders are already converting rental developments into apartments for sale, says the APCE

BarcelonaThere are already housing developers who have decided to convert the buildings they were building as rental apartments –built to rent– into properties to sell the apartments, following the new housing decrees approved by the Spanish government after the Maricarmen case, as stated by the president of the Association of Promoters and Constructors of Spain (APCE) and also president of APCE Catalonia, Xavier Vilajona.

Vilajoana presented this Wednesday the V National Housing Congress, which will be held on October 7 and 8 in Barcelona, and did not hesitate to assess the latest political proposals from both the Spanish government and the Generalitat to address the housing crisis.

"When you have a problematic asset, what do you do? You get rid of it," Vilajoana asked and answered. And in this sense, he indicated that, faced with the "legislative vortex," developers are deciding to sell. The president of the APCE assured that there are already developers who have called to explain that some developments they were making for rent will become for sale, while indicating that many others who already have apartments rented out will wait for the rental contract to expire and then will sell the apartments little by little. "Will the built to rent stop? Absolutely!", exclaimed Vilajoana.

The president of the APCE did not go into depth on the housing proposals made by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, during the general policy debate in Parliament, but he valued the fact that economic resources are being put into it. "At least the resources are being increased, conceptually it is good," he said.

On the other hand, he was very critical of the new decrees of the Spanish government. He accused politicians of "taking advantage of a personal tragedy [the Maricarmen case] to make political use of it." "No one likes these situations to happen, that's why I talk about the social shield. The administration should have tools prepared so as not to reach this point. And when it is reached, both sides take advantage of it," said the president of the APCE.

Vilajoana assured that cases of vulnerable people "are not general, but a minority." "You cannot solve these cases by mortgaging the rest of the sector," he assured. In his view, these cases should be resolved by the administrations with their own services: "The administrations should already have tools not to reach this point," he stressed. Vilajoana added regarding the decrees that "legislation has been passed for those who have 4% of the [housing] stock."

Structural solutions

Vilajoana has been very critical of politicians because, according to him, in terms of housing, there is a lot of legislation to seek short-term solutions, but without creating a law that solves the structural problems of the sector. Structural solutions that, in his opinion, involve modifying the land law and administrative streamlining.

Regarding the land law, he indicated that with a reform "thousands of homes could be unlocked," and he recalled that this has been discussed for a decade and there have been four unsuccessful attempts to bring it to Congress. For Vilajoana, "there is a lack of political will." In fact, he has quantified that the current law paralyzes between 40% and 50% of so-called affordable housing.

Above all, he has called for a reform that allows any fixable error not to force, as has been the case until now, a return to the beginning of urban planning.