Maribel Ramos: "I hope that Casa 47 does not put itself at risk"

BarcelonaAt the beginning of the year, the Spanish government announced with great fanfare the creation of a public company to manage affordable rental housing held by the State, Casa 47. However, when it launched its web portal in September, there were 800 apartments available throughout Spain. Maribel Ramos (Badajoz, 1977) assumed the presidency of Casa 47 in September, and grants her first interview to ARA.

Casa 47 launched its web portal this September, with an offer of 800 apartments, 93 of which are in Catalonia. They expect to add 1,500 more soon. Is this the affordable housing offer available to the Spanish government, after eight years of a coalition government?

— Obviously not. At this moment we have about 2,500 homes, but some of them still need to be adapted. At this moment, Sareb is the main channel for acquiring apartments. We also receive assets from other State institutions—such as societies and ministries—and we buy already constructed housing. Furthermore, we promote construction, acting directly as developers or collaborating with the private sector.

Do you understand the criticism?

— I understand them and I accept them, especially when they come from people who have an absolute need for housing. But when they come from people who have management responsibility and who, therefore, know what the difficulties are, they seem to me like comments that are meant to disrupt. Casa 47 is less than a year old, and in that time we have reached the maximum capacity we could reach. It is not a project for this legislative term, it is a long-term commitment and it has come to stay.

A few days ago the Prime Minister called a general election. Is Casa 47 in danger?

— I truly believe and trust that no, regardless of who wins the elections. If the coalition government governs again, it is not in danger at all. In the hypothetical case that this were not so, I hope that Casa 47 does not put itself at risk, especially taking into account the infrastructure that has been built around this public company and the mobilization capacity of the central administration.

Let's put numbers to House 47.

— In four years, Casa 47 could perfectly well have 50,000 apartments. These are promises that I am not sure make much sense to explain, because the people who need an apartment need it now, but it is the reality: the problem is that housing requires long-term planning, and it has started too late. It is not the central government that arrived late, but administrations in general. The real estate crisis paralyzed public construction and, instead of making counter-cyclical approaches, we pretended that the problem did not exist.

One of the ways to incorporate housing is to buy apartments on the open market. In March, they opened a public call with a budget of 100 million euros. At what point is it?

— We must carry out the appraisal processes for the properties that have been offered to us. Afterwards, we will make the firm proposal to the owners and see if we reach agreements or not. Once we close this process, with the money that we do not spend from the 100 million, we will open a direct award and people will be able to offer us housing again.

What is your assessment of the offers you have received?

— We, the administrations, have procedures that may not be excessively adapted to the reality of the real estate market, and this means we are not particularly competitive. We must continue working to make selling your home to the administration attractive.

I will ask you in another way: have you had to lower your spending expectations?

— Yes, absolutely, we have had to lower expectations. I do not know if we thought we would spend 100 million, but we are convinced that we have to spend much more. The first time we do something we need to analyze how we can improve for the next time, and at Casa 47 we always do things for the first time.

Regarding the controversial Sareb apartments: they are 40,000 properties and 2,400 plots of land for construction. How many has Casa 47 incorporated and what has been the cost to the public?

— If there is one thing I feel truly proud of, it is having participated in this process. Sareb was created, unfortunately, to bail out banks and without taking into account the people who were having a hard time. When we launched Casa 47, we decided that the apartments are not assets, but homes. The cost of incorporating them is zero, beyond the taxes that must be paid in any transition: these apartments have already been paid for, what would not be reasonable would be for us to pay for them again.

Can you guarantee that they will incorporate all Sareb homes that meet the conditions?

— I can guarantee that the 40,000 homes will arrive, unless there is a change of government and the next one stops it. In 2027, the transfer of all social housing apartments is planned, and we will subrogate all contracts with the conditions they currently have. Furthermore, on a quarterly basis, we will incorporate the rest of the properties: those that have an affordable rent, which we will also renew with the same conditions, and those that are empty, which we will make available to the public in less than three months.

When do they think they will finish the process?

— There is a part of Sareb's assets that are technically not yet considered housing, but debt, and which have an open judicial process. Until 2030 there will be processes for converting debt into housing, so we estimate that the final incorporation of Sareb's assets into Casa 47 will not arrive until then. However, we cannot guarantee this because there is a judicial derivative that we do not control.

There are already several housing exchanges active and managed by administrations. Does it make sense to add another one, instead of concentrating all the supply in a single window?

— Each administration is oriented towards different needs and situations. The door is not the same because the people we are addressing are not either. Broadly speaking, Casa 47 is oriented towards working for housing affordability: we focus on the central 60% of the population in terms of income. We introduce the perspective of the right to housing to prevent it from ending up being a factor of exclusion. On the other hand, we are convinced that in cases of residential exclusion and poverty, communities and city councils must intervene.

The potential beneficiaries of Casa 47 are people with an annual income between 16,800 and 63,000 euros. Only 6.5% of taxpayers exceeded the 60,000 euro threshold in 2024. Is it an excessive limit?

— It refers to the income of the entire family unit. Furthermore, for each dwelling we establish a series of limits, depending on its characteristics. In any case, the rent cannot exceed 30% of the net income of those accessing it, but it also cannot be less than 15%, so that families with higher incomes do not monopolize the offer. In the distribution of the population based on income, we assist the range of people between 20% and 80%.