Housing is the main weak flank of Pedro Sanchez among his electorate. It penalizes him more than corruption. More than anything. This is indicated by the qualitative surveys collated by the PP, which now proposes: on the one hand, intensifying the erosion of the Government and, on the other, bringing younger voters into its fold with a plan that, according to Alberto Núñez Feijóowill apply from the Government in its first hundred days.
This Tuesday, the popular president accompanied José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, to visit a promotion of apartments under a social rental regime. It was there where he presented the latest developments in his housing proposal, outlined with the support of fourteen regional governments and the real estate sector.
Feijóo contrasted his measures with the “smoke” of a Government that, he criticized, has sunk supply in Spain and has skyrocketed prices by up to 74% for purchases and 44% for rentals.
As an example, with the plan designed by the PP, a young person with an average salary who starts working at the age of 25 and wants to buy a house at 30, will have a tax aid of “between 21,000 and 26,000 euros” and will need “50,000 euros less to sign for a house of 250,000 euros.”
Feijóo recalled that his model has a basic premise: soil, soil and more soil. To build a million houses. The figure that, in his opinion, needs to be reached to alleviate the current crisis. In this regard, he promised to put out to tender more land to build, offer legal security or streamline administrative procedures. The idea is to promote figures such as “positive silence.” However, the star recipe was the tax incentive.
For young people, a group that has been set as a priority, other initiatives were carried out. Case of a home piggy bank or public guarantees of even 95 or 100%, in addition to tax reductions of up to 60%.
The bases of his proposal, Feijóo said, will have an impact not only on mitigating the housing crisis but also on employment, since it foresees the creation of up to 750,000 jobs. In summary, he stated: “It is the construction of opportunities and the future.”
Apart from exposing his recipes, the popular leader also criticized the management of the Sánchez Government. “Hundreds of thousands of houses announced, a law that prevents or makes it difficult for them to be built, a housing telephone number and an application with 800 apartments, 0.1% of those that Spain needs and none in Madrid or Barcelona.”
He framed such a negative balance in a “systemic failure” that our country is experiencing in all areas. And he remembered Ceuta. And the lack of immigration control. And the cost of life. And Education, with the recent PISA report. And of the doctors on strike. And the infrastructure. And insecurity. “My project for Spain is to put an end to this abandonment and this lack of protection,” he noted.
Feijóo recalled that the right to housing is even included in the Constitution. “But really what is protected, basically, is the right to an official home of the President of the Government,” he ironized.
Sánchez’s legacy, the popular president continued, is that the housing shortage has become chronic in Spain. No trace of the 750,000 promised real estate. “They have sunk supply and skyrocketed prices.” And “when a country makes access to housing impossible, the market is not failing, the policy is failing, and people’s future is being stolen,” he denounced. “That’s obviously not decent.”