Spain’s cabinet ministers said they have an agreement on new measures to curb the housing crisis in the country after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen last week from her apartment sparked protests.

Spain’s coalition government on Tuesday said it has agreed new measures to tackle the country’s housing crisis after the forceful removal of an 87-year-old pensioner last week from her apartment in Madrid sparked nationwide solidarity protests.

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said the housing legislation includes a ban on evictions until 2030, tighter rules for short-term rentals and a two-year extension for existing leases.

“It’s ‌time to intervene in the speculative housing market and begin to rebalance the scales between ⁠citizens and vulture funds,” Garcia, who belongs to the ‌leftist government’s junior coalition partner Sumar, wrote ⁠in a post on ⁠X.

  • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    I’ve given this quite a lot of thought.

    • Limit ownership of housing to physical persons only, and even then up to 3 units (nationally).
    • Create a program of divestment, without capital loss, for people and companies currently above the limit.
    • Simplify planning permissions for new construction, and especially full building renovations.
    • Abolish tax on buying/selling of real estate, compensate by increasing property tax.
    • Abolish previous failed laws - like minimum affordable units per building, it just acts as an implicit tax on construction.
    • Government should participate in construction in some capacity, but it shouldn’t be the main investor.

    The goal of all this is to redirect capital from owning to construction. If you’re a capitalist who wants to do capitalist stuff you can still earn a profit, but produce a social benefit in the process.

    • Taldan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Limit ownership of housing to physical persons only, and even then up to 3 units (nationally).

      How would that work with apartment buildings? Seems it would disincentivize dense housing at a minimum. We’d want more dense housing to meet current demand

      I, for one, prefer apartments. I jate having to maintain a whole house

      Create a program of divestment, without capital loss, for people and companies currently above the limit

      That could be an incredible amount of money. Housing is very speculative, and many people believe it is a bubble

      Who would be responsible for bankrolling this?

      Simplify planning permissions for new construction, and especially full building renovations.

      A great idea. This is one of the major changes Japan made to go from “yhe land under the royal palace is worth more than all the real estate in California”, to being the incredibly cheap housing market it today

      (The other major reform was a high inheritance tax on housing - forced a lot of people to sell their large, economically inefficient house, which was replaced by dense housing)

      Abolish tax on buying/selling of real estate, compensate by increasing property tax.

      I’m not as familiar with the economic implications here. My first concern would be that it then increases the short-term speculative pressure. People will be incentivized to flip properties quickly, which may incentivize the “landlord special” - quick, shoddy work to move the sell the home as quickly as possible, especially with the ownership limit

      What would the benefits be?

      Abolish previous failed laws - like minimum affordable units per building, it just acts as an implicit tax on construction.

      A good choice

      Government should participate in construction in some capacity, but it shouldn’t be the main investor.

      I would need more information on how this would work and what itbmeans to form any opinion

      • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        How would that work with apartment buildings?

        The same way it works right now. You own your apartment and share in the ownership of common spaces.

        The question tells me you’re not from Spain. In other jurisdictions it might require modifying laws to allow for outright ownership of apartments, which complicates the issue somewhat. But it’s beneficial anyway, I can’t imagine not legally being able to own an apartment.

        Who would be responsible for bankrolling this?

        I was thinking government backed 0% loans to tenants who actually occupy an apartment. The amount fixed to the taxable value at the moment the law was passed. You would still keep paying the same amount as rent, but it would go toward paying off the loan. I admit it would take decades to complete.