Except for surprise, the party that won the last general elections will not lead the new Government, as was confirmed this Wednesday after the Congress of Deputies’ rejection of the candidacy of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. However, the regional comedians decided this level of government in favor of the Popular Party, a position that they will use to oppose the new executive that will presumably once again be led by Pedro Sánchez, while the PSOE falters on the territorial map. In this context, housing policy is constituted as an ace up the sleeve of the ‘popular’ in the face of a Housing Law that is weak due to the lack of development of the rental price index.
The leaders of the PP showed their rejection of the state rule since the first negotiations between the progressive groups to move it forward – ERC, EH-Bildu, Unidas Podemos and Más País – were made public, and it has led three of them to present appeals against the Constitutional Court (Andalusia, Madrid and the Balearic Islands), as well as 50 of the deputies who made up the Popular Parliamentary Group in the previous legislature. The High Court decided on Tuesday to accept the three appeals for processing along with the one presented by the Parliament of Catalonia, given that all four affected the possible invasion of powers of the law approved in May.
However, the rule promoted by Raquel Sánchez’s department constitutes only one of the legs of the housing policy promoted by the central Executive, now in office, which also launched ICO credits to guarantee access to housing for who have a salary that would allow them to cover a young mortgage, but have not been able to save the amount corresponding to the down payment on the apartment. He also promised to allocate the Sareb apartments (about 50,000 properties) to social rent and increase the public housing stock to reach 183,000 apartments throughout this legislature.
This model has been transferred and sometimes implemented before by some of the territories governed by the PP. The Community of Madrid launched the ‘My First Home’ program in 2022 in collaboration with different banking entities to cover 95% of mortgage loans, intended for those under 35 years of age. Along the same lines, the ‘Youth Housing Guarantee’ plan has been designed, approved by the Government of Andalusia just three weeks ago and which will also cover 95% of the loan. These territories have not been left behind when it comes to promoting new public housing, both at the regional and municipal levels. The mayor of the capital has set the goal of promoting the construction of 12,000 properties.
Deductions in personal income tax and reductions in ITP
However, the ‘popular’ leaders also leave the plan set by the central Executive – now in office – to recover formulas that had been discarded due to the significant cost they had in the past for the public coffers and their possible contribution to the bubble. real estate: deductions in personal income tax for the purchase of the first home. This has been the case of La Rioja where there was a change of color in the Government after 28-M. The president, Gonzalo Capellán, announced this Monday the measure aimed at alleviating the rise in the Euribor, which will involve a deduction of 15% up to a maximum of 5,000 euros per year. The Executive based in Logroño calculates that the deduction on housing and another for sports will mean a saving of 10.8 million euros for its citizens (and that the territory will no longer receive income).
The Valencian government of Carlos Mazón has also included the reduction of the Property Transfer Tax (ITP) for those under 35 years of age that include a home of less than 180,000 euros in the preliminary draft of tax measures. The current rate was 8% and at the end of 2023 it would be 6%, a reduction that amounted to 14.7 million euros as it could benefit more than 15,000 young people. This social group also benefits from a reduced ITP of 3.5% in Andalusia if they acquire a habitual residence with a value of less than 150,000 euros. The Government of Juanma Moreno has estimated this tax savings at 82.2 million euros.
The coalition government of Extremadura, made up of Vox and PP, has also joined the measures of its party colleagues with the elimination of the tax on large holders approved by the previous socialist executive and which had not come into force. While in Aragon, the government team formed by the two right-wing parties has conveyed that housing policy will focus on those under 35 years of age. “They are going to have special treatment by this government for the issue of housing from all points of view,” said the Minister of Mobility and Housing in statements to Cadena Ser, although at the moment they have not confirmed the policies that They will start.
