The Government is preparing to give new impetus to its housing policy. According to Minister Isabel Rodríguez a few days ago, the Council of Ministers will approve this Tuesday the transformation of the Public Land Commercial Entity (Sepes) into Casa 47, the new public company with which the Executive wants to reconfigure the management of public parks of housing to cope with rising prices. This reconversion will be accompanied by the auction of aid to owners against non-payment of rent designed at the start of the year.
The public housing company announced by Government President Pedro Sánchez a year ago will come into existence this Tuesday and is expected to begin offering affordable public rental housing in 2026 through an online portal. Prices will not exceed 30% of average income of the area where the property is located and the contracts will have an initial duration of 14 years, extendable up to a maximum of 75 years, with extensions every seven years as long as the tenant maintains the conditions of access. Without knowing more details, Rodríguez assured Thursday that 60% of the Spanish population will be eligible for apartments of the new entity, since there will be different types aimed at families with incomes between two and 7.5 times the IPREM – currently between 16,800 and 63,000 euros annually.
As the minister announced this Sunday in an interview with The avant-gardethe government plans an investment of 13 billion euros in ten years in Casa 47at a rate of 1.3 billion euros per year from 2026. Rodríguez argued that once this volume of resources is reached, “the company will have to be economically viable” with the management of rentals and “without the need for additional public contribution.” The Government’s objective is to concentrate all housing in the hands of the State in this organization – for example the 40,000 apartments and 2,400 plots of land transferred from Sepes – and to centralize the entire real estate cycle there, from land development to the handing over of keys and rental management. There are also plans to purchase houses from individuals.
The transformation of Sepes will not be the only housing measure debated in the Council of Ministers. Rodríguez also advanced a week ago the prediction of approval this Tuesday the latest details of help for landlords in the event of non-payment of rent. The Government already gave the green light in January to the basic configuration of this public insurance, although the development of a regulation to finalize its operation is still pending.
According to the text approved at the beginning of the year, this line of guarantees in the event of non-payment of rent is intended for owners who rent their accommodation below the state reference price index. In addition, The tenant must be under 35 years old or in a vulnerable situation. In cases where these conditions are met, public insurance will guarantee the recovery of all unpaid monthly payments in the event that the tenant stops paying the rent until the owner recovers the accommodation, as well as any damage caused by the tenant and the cost of supplies that the owner had to assume, although it will be necessary to wait until the accommodation is empty to claim recovery of all these sums.
This measure was agreed at the end of January with Junts to ensure their support for the decree on social assistance which included increasing pensions according to the CPI, discounts on public transport and various aid to those affected by DANA and the La Palma volcano. This text also made it possible to extend until December 31, 2025 the ban on the expulsion of vulnerable families, a measure taken from the social shield that the government put in place following the pandemic and which the left-wing parties of the PSOE are asking to be delayed again before the end of the year. The government claims to be working to make this possible, although it recalls that for the extension to be effective, the support of Congress is essential.
Junts’ reluctance had already triggered the suspension of evictions last year, although that was eventually resolved with the deal that included public insurance against unpaid debts. Confirmation that the Council of Ministers would take up this initiative came a few hours after the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, admitted in an interview about the “non-compliance” of RAC1 with the formation of Carles Puigdemont and advance the intention of realizing this and other demands of the independence party.
However, complaints to the government regarding housing do not only come from the Catalan right. Progressive partners have also increased pressure in recent weeks, demanding the extension without revision of rents of rental contracts which expire in 2026, to avoid tenants having to deal with the sharp rise in prices. Sumar sources assured on Saturday that the formation of Yolanda Díaz would force a vote within the Executive on the freezing of what is estimated at some 300,000 contracts. They will bring this question before the Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs, one of the bodies which decides which questions will be dealt with in the Council of Ministers.
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