Alejandro Aguilar: "We can propose that Xàbia be classified as a stressed rental area"

The candidacy of Podem Xàbia held a working lunch with Alejandro Aguilar Parrilla, candidate for Alicante to the Valencian Parliament. During the meeting, many issues related to current affairs and the proximity of the 28M elections have been discussed, highlighting issues related to the problem of access to housing, very accentuated in Xàbia.

Aguilar reported that the Generalitat manages 110 million euros from the European Union in six different program lines ranging from the regeneration of neighborhoods to the rehabilitation of housing for social rental. These lines feed, among others, the ADHA Plan dedicated to helping local entities for the acquisition of homes; It is a public-private collaboration in which the municipalities make land available to the Generalitat, which supports housing development, financing 100% of the initiative with the following conditions:

• The land will always be publicly owned.
• The promotion undertakes not to exceed the price of 7,5 euros/m2
• Aimed at families with incomes of less than 2600 euros/month

Alejandro Aguilar in an act of Podem Xàbia

The Generalitat has selected the municipalities of Xàbia, Sagunt and Valencia. In the case of our municipality, the technical team of the Autonomous Secretariat for Housing and Social Functions has studied the possibilities of the promotion, which will result in the construction of 118 homes fully financed by the Generalitat, according to the conditions described above.

Aguilar pointed out different lines of subsidy, which Xàbia has let go, such as the purchase of a home that enjoys 100% financing of the value of the property and all the technical and management costs of the acquisition, aid for reform, rehabilitation or adaptation of housing or the Convive Plan for the rehabilitation of public spaces.

There is also the possibility of launching a public tender to promote affordable rental housing, where the promoter undertakes to:

• That the house has efficiency 'A'
• affordable rent
• Aimed at families with a limited IPREM (public income indicator), including reserve percentages for young people, the elderly, battered women and people with functional diversity.

The institutions, the Town hall, have a responsibility greater than that of citizens, since, in addition to having the tools to change the mechanism of access to housing, they must disseminate the possibilities and opportunities we have to access decent housing. Tools such as, for example, the diffusion of the registry of housing applicants that is consulted at the moment of awarding a house to an applicant; or an IBI increase of up to 150% for empty homes; or the declaration of a stressed area (areas in which there has been a sustained increase in rental prices in recent years).

In this sense, the “commitment of the current government” with housing must be relativized. The only thing that the City Council does to achieve the highly publicized 118 affordable rental homes is to make the land available to the Ministry of Housing. The Department is in charge of everything else.

"As far as we know, in the eight years that the current municipal government has not requested or obtained any of the above-mentioned aid, it has lost a European grant of 500.000 euros for the rehabilitation of Casa Xolbi (we'll see - or not - when the rehabilitation will be completed), nor has it bought a single one of the 34 homes and 120 plots of land owned by Sareb in Xàbia. Xàbia today does not have a public housing stock and now, 15 days before the elections, says the consistory that it will to form one," Aguilar said.

Another problem that we suffer in our town is the increase in housing for tourist rental. This represents a problem because a tourist apartment is economically much more profitable for the owner than renting a home – a regular residence tenant cannot afford to pay 1000 euros a week for an apartment, 4 tourists in the same home can. And an apartment that is intended for tourist use is not available for habitual residence. From the data published by the INE, the percentages obtained from the tourist housing offer with respect to the total population are frightening: Dénia 40%, Benitatxell 70%, Teulada 65%, Benissa 55%, Calp 66% and Xàbia 60%, a total of 16.641 places are allocated in Xàbia to tourist accommodation instead of housing.

A City Council is an agent that can act on housing issues, Podemos will propose that Xàbia be classified as a stressed area and will ask that tourist homes be limited in stressed areas. Likewise, it will promote the creation of a municipal housing company, with the capacity to access the calls promoted by the Generalitat or any other body with responsibility for this matter. And, finally, we will promote that, in the rest of the existing public land in Xàbia, promotions are carried out that favor access to decent housing through one of the aforementioned mechanisms.