Pedro Sánchez: 'If housing is one of the greatest concerns of families, it is also the greatest concern of the Government of Spain'

The President of the Government of Spain took part in the ceremony to lay the first stone of the Retamar de la Huerta urban development in Alcorcón, which will have 3,500 new homes, including 1,120 social housing units.

Alcorcón (Madrid)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks at the ceremony to lay the first stone of the Retamar de la Huerta urban development in Alcorcón (Madrid) (Fernando Calvo)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has stated that "if housing is one of the greatest concerns of families, and it is, it is also the greatest concern of the Government of Spain and we are going to work hard to find a solution." For this reason, he stressed that the Executive "is leading one of the most ambitious strategies in recent decades to make access to housing a right within everyone's reach" and "the fifth pillar of the welfare state." He said this during the closing ceremony of the laying of the first stone of the Retamar de la Huerta urban development in Alcorcón (Madrid), which will have 3,500 new homes, including 1,120 social housing units. The event was also attended by the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.

Pedro Sánchez has stressed the importance of taking action to tackle the "serious housing problem", which is why he has once again called on all local councils and autonomous communities to apply the Housing Law, as "it is working", with prices falling by 5% in Catalonia and 9% in Barcelona, without reducing supply. In this respect, he has encouraged local councils, such as the eleven in the Community of Madrid that have applied for the declaration of stressed areas, to continue to demand that the regional government apply the Housing Law. "Keep fighting for this just cause," urged Pedro Sánchez, who pointed out that a family in Alcorcón paying 1,000 euros a month in rent would have saved 600 euros a year with the ceilings provided for in the Housing Law. "The hand of this Government is outstretched to all administrations, to all public representatives and to all companies that want to join in this collective challenge," he added.

Seven years of housing measures

He pointed out that housing is "the Government's greatest concern", and that it is going to "work hard to find a solution". The Executive is currently processing the new State Housing Plan, which involves more than 7 billion euros in investment from 2026 to 2030, a new 30,000 euro subsidy for young people who want to rent to buy and a rise in the Youth Rental Voucher to 300 euros. These new measures are in addition to the numerous measures adopted by the Government in the last seven years, in which it has increased investment in housing eightfold, built 80,000 affordable rental homes, put a stop to vulture funds and launched a platform against the fraud of tourist flats, as well as eliminating the 'golden visa'.

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, and the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, at the closing ceremony to lay the first stone of the Retam| Fernando Calvo

In addition, the Executive has turned SEPES into a state housing company, providing it with Sareb assets to boost construction. "Others did the opposite: they created bad banks and promoted bank bailouts that Spaniards unfortunately ended up paying for. These are the same people who are betting that the solution to the housing problem is greater liberalisation of the market" when "what we need is public intervention and regulation," lamented Pedro Sánchez.

1,120 social housing units

The Chief Executive celebrated the fact that Alcorcón "is taking a step forward that will mark its future", with the urban development of Retamar de la Huerta, which will have 3,500 new homes, including 1,120 social housing units. In this sense, he thanked the Mayor of Alcorcón for her "clear and firm will and determination" and her "drive" to move forward with urban development and to ensure that housing is a right "for everyone and not a privilege, which unfortunately today is within the reach of very few." In this context, he recalled that the difficulty of access to housing explains up to 60% of the inequality of young Spaniards. "There is no logic in a family or a young person having to spend more than half of their income on rent, as happens in many parts of the Madrid region and our country," he said.

Pedro Sánchez also specified that 200 homes in the new urban development of Retamar de la Huerta will be promoted by the new state housing entity, and he advanced that the Government is going to promote the construction of 800 flats, 300 for students and researchers, with rents of less than 400 euros. In the Community of Madrid alone, the Government of Spain has invested more than 1.4 billion for rehabilitation, affordable housing creation and social renting. "It is much more than has been done in decades and much more than what some other administrations with competences in this field are unfortunately doing to face this great challenge, which is also faced by many other countries around us. If we all had the same political will, we could probably provide a much quicker response to the housing shortages that large sections of Spanish society are facing in order to tackle this great challenge," he added.

Non official translation

More Info

• Aid from the Immediate Response, Reconstruction and Relaunching Plan

More news

Tags:

• Government of Spain
• Housing