This is the Spanish government's housing plan: 7 billion euros to be paid between the State and the autonomous communities

MadridFirst housing plan of the Spanish government within the framework of the new housing law. This Tuesday the Council of Ministers presented the pillars of its policy to try to resolve the main problem of citizens, according to the CIS, but with the difficulty that a significant part of the competencies is in the hands of the autonomous communities. The minister of the portfolio, Isabel Rodríguez, assured that the "public housing stock is protected" to prevent the investment of state funds in the construction and renovation of buildings from ending up in private hands. "Until now, the role of the general administration of the State was that of a paying agent," said Rodríguez, while now its will is to intervene in the autonomous communities to ensure the "rights" of citizens.

This new Plan 2026-2030 foresees an investment of 7,000 million euros, 60% of which would be contributed by the State and, in contrast, 40% by the autonomous communities. However, they will not be distributed in the territory equally: in the case of Catalonia, the plan foresees the allocation of 1,015 million euros between the Generalitat (40%) and the State (60%). An increase of 473 million euros compared to the previous plan. In the case of the Community of Madrid, 1,113 million euros are projected, which means an increase of 815 million euros. What is the reason for this difference? According to ministry sources, the increase compared to the previous plan is less than in other communities because the Generalitat had previously contributed more than 40% of resources in the plan. "Catalonia has done its homework," they assure, as it has met more than the minimums required by Housing. And it is that the fulfillment of the plan, as the data shows, depends on the will of compliance of each autonomous community and what they have found so far from the ministry is that the PP communities, they say, were not investing the minimum 40% required by the State.

For this reason, controversy is already served. Isabel Díaz Ayuso's regional government says the new state plan "invades competencies and has not been agreed upon with the communities." "Everything boils down to the fact that if you don't believe in Pedro Sánchez's interventionism, there's no money," said the Madrid Housing Minister, Jorge Rodrigo, via X. The Spanish government has replied: "Isabel Díaz Ayuso believes she harms the government when she doesn't apply the law, but she is harming a million and a half people who rent. Today their rents could be frozen if the president of Madrid applied the [rent] cap," lamented the minister, and added that they would be "surprised" if Madrid were left out of the plan because it would mean being left without state resources to allocate to housing matters.

And the distribution of funds is "subject" to a commitment of "execution" by the autonomous communities in three areas: building new homes, rehabilitating the existing stock, and protecting citizens' right to housing above speculation. The idea is that 40% of the resources will be allocated to construction, 30% to rehabilitation, and 30% to aid. The guarantee that the State government has to achieve more investment –says the ministry– in housing is the "semiannual control" over the communities regarding the execution of works and setting conditions for continued receipt of funds based on progress. "Before, we lost control the moment we handed over the money, now they will have to report information to us," the minister clarified.

Measures to increase the housing stock

The "public park" shielding"

Another novelty presented by Minister Rodríguez is the introduction of "controls" and "transparency" in housing policies. According to the Spanish government, the plan incorporates a "safeguard" so that "speculation" with public housing "cannot occur." "In the last 45 years, 2.7 million subsidized housing units have been built, but most were declassified over the years," says the ministry. If they had been maintained within the public stock –they assure–, Spain would have a stock similar to European standards.

At the same time, the ministry also introduces an anti-fraud clause in public housing allocations to avoid cases like those in Alicante. What measures? According to the plan, affordable rental apartments will be awarded based on "objective, measurable, and transparent criteria," without further specification. In terms of transparency, they also want to ensure public data and reduce discourses "based on "fake news", and to do so, they will ask the autonomous communities to send them "information on rental contracts in the community's deposit registry." This measure, they believe, "will facilitate real-time information on the number of current rentals, their price, tenant turnover, and the current supply."

The timeline for the application of the housing plan is as follows: this April, the State and the communities must meet to discuss the plan's implementation; a sectoral conference will be held to approve the distribution of funds, and, finally, the measures will be rolled out between June and September of this year.