The Community of Madrid is now selling the luxury penthouse for Ayuso

MadridThe Community of Madrid has decided to get rid of the 485-square-meter penthouse it bought as a "temporary office" for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, as reported by the Madrid government this Wednesday at noon after its governing council meeting. After 24 hours of controversy since the purchase of the property became public following a report by El País, Ayuso's government has decided to include this penthouse in the sale of four properties it owns on Madrid's Gran Vía.

"I have instructed the public company Planifica Madrid to put up for sale four properties we have on Madrid's Gran Vía and also the property located on Paseo General Martínez Campo, valued together at around 20 million euros," explained the spokesperson for the Madrid government, Miguel Ángel García Martín, at a press conference this Thursday. The apartment located on Paseo General Martínez Campo, in the residential neighborhood of Chamberí, is the controversial penthouse that includes a 199-square-meter terrace and that the regional government would have bought as a "temporary office" while the rehabilitation of the Royal Mail House is underway. In a press conference this Wednesday, Ayuso assured that it was not clear that the property was for her personally and denounced a campaign of "discredit in full emergency" due to the fires. In fact, as explained by García Martín, the amount obtained from the sale of these properties will be allocated "to the reconstruction of the Sierra Oeste after the fire".

Shortly before the decision became known, the PP continued to defend the purchase: "The Community of Madrid has provided explanations [...] It is an integral renovation of the regional government's headquarters and it makes perfect sense that a temporary location be enabled for a while, this is what they have explained and we echo these explanations," said Miguel Tellado, Secretary General of the PP, at a press conference this Thursday.

In a statement, the regional government explains that planned works will continue at the Royal Post Office throughout this summer to keep the building "in the best condition" and that it will now "continue to look, within its real estate assets, for spaces that meet the necessary conditions to relocate the activity of the Royal Post Office while the rehabilitation works last".

The Madrid opposition, which demanded explanations quickly, has not taken long to react to the decision to sell the property now. "The only reason Ayuso's penthouse, bought with public money, is being sold is because we have caught them. The shame is so great that they have to use the pain of the Madrid fires, which she herself could have prevented, to cover up her defeat," said Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Más Madrid in the regional Assembly, via the social network X. Members of Pedro Sánchez's government also came out in force this Wednesday to criticize the purchase of the property and reproached Ayuso's government for buying a penthouse while "it refuses to freeze the rents of thousands of Madrid residents". "The only housing that interests her is her own," asserted the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez.

"It is false, I am not buying anything nor is anyone buying anything for me", Ayuso said this Wednesday in a press conference, although she acknowledged that the apartment was one of the spaces that would be used during the renovation that will be carried out on the Royal House of Correos building, headquarters of the regional government.

The acquisition of the apartment was made in mid-April by the public company Planifica Madrid itself, which manages the Community's land, but it was not publicized or included in any budget or transparency portal. Neither the government nor the president have clarified the price, but according to the investigations of the newspaper El País, an apartment of these characteristics is located between four and six million euros.