Juanma Moreno, president of the Junta de Andalucía, assured this Monday that “the worst is feared” from the decree with new housing measures that the Council of Ministers plans to approve this Tuesday, and warned that “nothing good” can come from a “unilateral” norm, processed “without negotiating with the rest of the political forces, from clearly ideological approaches and from electoral haste.”
Moreno made these statements during his speech at the opening of the ‘Andalucía Investors Day’ meeting, organized by the digital newspaper ‘El Confidencial’ in Seville, where he placed housing as “a problem” that “is not easy to solve.”
“More management and less ideology”
In his speech during "Andalucía Investors Day", the Andalusian president defended that, faced with such a complex issue as housing, whoever tries to solve it through “eloquent headlines” or “populism” will only generate “greater frustration and melancholy in the population.” Against this, he maintained that the first thing is to explain to citizens that it is a difficult problem, because “there are many actors involved” in this matter.
Moreno, who already expressed himself along these lines last Monday during a key handover ceremony for homes in Seville, insisted that “the best thing that can be done with housing is to manage and remove ideology from management,” which is why he again called for “more management and less ideology,” understanding that “ideologizing a problem” does not contribute to solving it.
Land, supply and bureaucracy
The president of the Junta de Andalucía pointed out that Spain “is not an overpopulated country” like Japan, but a territory with “an area of more than half a million square kilometers,” with large unbuilt areas, so he considered it abnormal that there is a housing problem with such a large gap between supply and demand and, as a consequence, with “very high” prices.
In his opinion, the key is to start addressing clearly the different factors that hinder construction, among them the raw material, “the land,” on which he has requested “a totally different treatment” from the current one and has defended that its availability must be facilitated.
“We cannot have frozen land, as we have had in Andalusia for many years,” warned Juanma Moreno, who also claimed that the Andalusian community is today the autonomous region that “builds the most homes in Spain,” thanks, he explained, to the release to the market of public land that “was inert” and on which “almost 45,000 homes” can be built.
Moreno added that housing also directly conditions fundamental urban developments and accused administrations of maintaining “many obstacles, much bureaucracy, many taxes,” a combination that, in his opinion, makes the task even more difficult.
Legal certainty and rent
The Andalusian president stressed that “there are no magic wands, but there is work and there are solutions,” and defended that the fact that Andalusia is the first community in housing construction in Spain will contribute to reducing the gap between supply and demand. He also highlighted that the community is “the third, with the aim of being the second next year, in official protection housing,” intended for people with difficulties or more vulnerable, especially young people.
At this point, Juanma Moreno claimed the “fundamental” importance of legal certainty and again referred to the decree being negotiated by the coalition partners of Pedro Sánchez's Government. As he warned, if it goes ahead “without due reflection with professionals, with land actors,” the result will be “another headline” that will not help the housing problem.
Moreno asked that this issue be treated “with realism” and “also young people as adults,” in addition to promoting the “deep and far-reaching” reforms that, in his opinion, the residential market needs to stop being a problem in a country that, he insisted, “should not be, because we are not Japan, we are Spain, we have nearly 50 million inhabitants and more than half a million square kilometers.”
“Interventionism does not work”
After reiterating that he fears “the worst” from the decree that the Council of Ministers will approve, the president of the Junta de Andalucía stated that “interventionism and the lack of legal certainty have already been shown not to work.” In that framework, he assured that in some areas of Andalusia there is currently 30% of the rental market retained, something he attributes to the fear of owners of not being able to recover their homes in case of occupation or litigation.
“All these kinds of things are generating enormous concern,” said Moreno, who linked this situation to a contraction in rent and ended by asking for “care with what is done, because afterwards the consequences are serious.”