SAREB Flats: State to Boost Public Housing by 40,000 Units

“It is about making families these flats for affordable rent,” said Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez in a press conference after the Cabinet. In fact, this was a promise that Pedro Sánchez already made before the general election of 2023. The intention is to transfer these flats of the Sareb to SEPES in the shortest possible time, although a calendar of incorporation is not specified: “The procedure and rhythm of incorporation of the real estate will be done in such a way that it allows the proper integration into the heritage of the sepes, taking into account the legal capacity and the legal capacity, taking into account the Entities, “they say from the Ministry. Rodríguez also said that the transfer will not be an additional cost to public coffers. “It’s a donation to the state,” he said.

“Sepes has carried out an evaluation process of soils and real estate,” say the ministry that Isabel Rodríguez balls. In this process, different factors of economic, legal and technical viability have been taken into account. For example, in the case of technical criteria, it has been valued that buildings do not have structural pathologies, adapted to urban planning legislation and have appropriate habitability conditions.

It should be borne in mind that a thickness of the Sareb’s floors – the so -called banc dolent– They are toxic active of the crisis of the brick (unpaid flats) that were launching the accounts of the banks and that the Sareb assumed to reflitate the financial institutions (and the economy). Beyond the possible reforms necessary over the years, some were not even finished. Although the state had a bad bank on its debt since 2021, so far the homes were still excluded from the public park.

Last January, the President of the Spanish Government announced the transfer of 3,300 buildings and almost 2 million square meters of residential land for the construction of social housing in the new public housing company (they were assets of the General State Administration). It was also explained that they wanted to incorporate the real estate assets that are currently in the hands of Sareb and discussed an “immediate incorporation” of up to 13,000 homes. A figure, however, was expected to be gradually expanded.

As a result of the change in Sepes, the new public company also has priority when buying housing and public land. In this regard, the Cabinet has approved an endowment of 593 million euros to complete the construction and adaptation of real estate, as well as the purchase of plots from the Ministry of Defense.

More funding

In parallel, the Spanish government has begun the round of technical meetings with the Autonomous Communities to launch the State Housing Plan for the period 2026-2030 and which focused, among other things, the conference of regional presidents held in Barcelona on June 6. Sources from the Ministry of Housing say that contacts have already been maintained with the Basque Country, Catalonia, Navarra, Asturias, the Canary Islands and Galicia and that they have all joined the agreement of the minimum of the conference. Specifically, these communities have accepted the investment of the plan (up to 7 billion), which means that the state contributes 60% of the budget, they will provide the remaining 40%. Also “permanently” protect the flats that are financed by these funds so that they do not leave the public housing park and offer more official data on the residential market.

The Ministry’s intention is to convene a sectoral conference to close a joint agreement, but taking into account the reluctance of some regional governments of the PP, as in the case of the Community of Madrid, the portfolio of Isabel Rodríguez will keep the negotiations “bilateral”, the same sources say. From the ministry they remember that the state “has the power to direct and conditional the housing policies that are carried out with the funds [del govern espanyo]”.