New impetus to the promotion of sheltered housing

Last October, Royal Decree 853/2021 was approved, which regulates the Assistance Programs for residential rehabilitation and social housing of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (Next Generation Fund). Program 6 of this RD regulates aid for the promotion of social rental housing in energy efficient buildings. This program provides grants of up to €700/useful m2 of housing with a maximum of €50,000 per housing to develop projects of new construction or rehabilitation of buildings that are not currently used as housing. These projects must be developed on publicly owned lots or through mostly public companies or even through public-private collaboration formulas (surface rights, administrative concessions, …). These buildings must be used for social rent or transfer of use for a minimum of 50 years with technical requirements of high energy efficiency. The maximum rental price will be set by each Autonomous Community and the buildings must be finished before the end of June 2026. At the moment, the regulatory transposition of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the regulatory development of the Royal Decree is pending drafting. More recently, RD 42/2022 has been published which develops the State Plan for access to housing 2022-25. This rule deploys several initiatives, of which we highlight two:

Program 7. Housing promotion program for the elderly or people with disabilities . Aquest programa fomenta la promoció d’habitatges per a ser destinats al lloguer durant un termini mínim de vint anys amb renda limitada i per a ser arrendats per persones grans o persones amb discapacitat. Es tracta de fomentar promocions d’habitatges amb prestacions, instal·lacions i serveis addicionals com assistència social, atenció mèdica bàsica disponible 24h, neteja i manteniment, dispositius i sistemes de seguretat, restauració, activitats socials, esportives, d’oci i culturals, així com teràpies preventives i de rehabilitació. L’ajut podrà ser fins a un màxim de 700€/m2c útil. La quantitat màxima d’aquesta subvenció no podrà superar el 50% de la inversió de l’actuació, amb un límit màxim de 50.000€ per allotjament i habitatge. Aquesta subvenció es compatible amb qualsevol altre subvenció atorgada per altres AA.PP. pel mateix objecte. El preu del lloguer no podrà superar els 10€/m2 útil privatiu. També es podran repercutir el cost real dels serveis que gaudeixi l’arrendatari, així com les altres repercussions autoritzades per la normativa vigent. Els destinataris d’aquests habitatges seran persones de més de 65 anys o a persones amb discapacitat amb rendes anuals familiars que no superin cinc vegades l’IPREM. Aquestes persones no hauran de ser propietàries de cap habitatge en el moment d’accedir a aquests habitatges.

Programa 8. Programa de foment d’allotjaments temporals, de models de cohousing, d’habitatges Intergeneracionals i modalitats similars. These are new forms of housing in which the spaces of interrelationship gain more surface area than the purely private spaces, which enables greater integration and relationship between the tenants. The aid may be up to a maximum of €420/m2 useful considering private spaces as common and interrelationship spaces. The maximum amount of this subsidy may not exceed 50% of the investment of the action, with a maximum limit of €50,000 for accommodation and housing. This grant is compatible with any other grant awarded by other AA.PP. for the same object. The rental price cannot exceed €8/m2 of private use and the proportional part of the surface of the common and interconnected spaces. The real cost of the services enjoyed by the lessee, as well as the other repercussions authorized by current regulations, may also be repercussed. The recipients of these homes must have annual family incomes that do not exceed five times the IPREM. In our opinion, these legislative initiatives can be a success if other actions are activated that improve the economic and financial viability of these projects to respond to an important part of the population that is excluded from the purchase or rental market housing in the free market. Public-private collaboration is essential to promote these projects. The Local Administrations are the owners of plots intended for sheltered housing that will need to be mobilized either with their own financial resources or with the participation of the private sector with or without profit, to offer an extensive and quality offer. In the latter case, it will be necessary for both parties to get involved and work in coordination to ensure the success of the project: promotion of a social performance, trust between all the agents involved with a professional management of the buildings and generating an economic surplus to give attractive to the private sector. It will also be necessary for the financial sector to commit to these projects. The need for financial resources to develop these projects is very significant and it will be necessary to explore other formulas than the traditional ones to cover these projects since so far the private banking initiative has been very cautious. It is also essential to take a step forward in optimizing the taxation of these projects since the exemption from VAT in the rental of homes means that all the fees borne by this tax for these projects represent a cost that reduce their performance. All the legislative initiatives that we have presented, bet on sheltered housing under the rental regime. Therefore, the exploitation of these buildings will have to be done with a long-term vision and therefore those private operators with short-term performance expectations will be left out. We are missing a more determined push for sheltered renting aimed at young people, a group that at the moment is most in need of access to housing depending on their disposable income. We hope that these initiatives will be a success in improving access to housing for a very important part of our society.