The deputy spokesperson of the Socialist Group in Les Corts, María José Salvador, has denounced that the new price of public protection housing set by the Consell makes access to a VPP an economically “unaffordable operation for the majority” of Valencian families. “We are talking about homes that should be affordable and yet require taking on a mortgage of almost 900 euros per month for 25 years,” she pointed out.
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The Generalitat just approved this August a 7% increase in the module – the increase was published in the DOCV last Friday – which determines the maximum sale price of public protection housing, with a price set at 2,568 euros per square meter of usable surface. The price in force until then was 2,400 euros.
With the new module of 2,568 euros per square meter, a protected home of 90 square meters reaches a price of 231,120 euros, according to socialist calculations. If the bank finances 80% of the value, the mortgage loan would amount to 184,896 euros, while the buyer or family would have to contribute the remaining 46,224 euros, in addition to taxes and expenses associated with the acquisition, they claim.
“We are talking about the installment that families would have to pay being almost 900 euros per month for 25 years to access a home that is supposed to be protected and affordable,” Salvador assured, who demanded that the Consell explain “how it intends for working families to access these homes at this price level.”
Furthermore, she warned that the mortgage installment “is not the only effort that anyone wanting to buy one of these homes must assume.” “To those almost 900 euros monthly, you have to add the 46,224 euros that the bank does not finance, as well as the taxes and purchase expenses. Therefore, the problem is not only the monthly installment: it is also the enormous entry barrier that the Consell is creating to access protected housing,” she explained.
For Salvador, these data “show that the Consell is confusing protected housing with expensive housing.” “Public housing must serve to facilitate access for those who cannot access the free market. If to buy a VPP you have to take on a mortgage of almost 185,000 euros and pay nearly 900 euros each month for 25 years and more than 77,600 euros in interest, we are facing a policy that precisely excludes the people who need affordable housing,” she argued.
In her opinion, “it makes no sense that the Consell’s response to the housing problem is to raise the price of protected housing until it becomes unaffordable.”
Demands that the Consell withdraw the module increase
For all these reasons, she demanded that the president of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, withdraw this increase “and return protected housing to its rightful place: as a tool to guarantee the right to housing, not as expensive housing with a public protection label.”
Salvador insisted that increasing the number of protected homes “does not solve the problem if those homes cannot be bought by the people they are intended for.”
“The PP continues to pervert public housing policies in the Valencian Community. In fact, it has increased the price of protected housing in our territory twice in barely two years, raising the module price by almost 17% from where the Botànic Consell left it. The PP is systematically approaching housing policy from a business perspective and not from a rights perspective, thinking about the interests of builders and not the interests of Valencians who need protected housing,” she said.
“The result is clear: today, in the Valencian Community, it is more difficult to access protected housing than yesterday. Precisely for people who cannot access free housing and need the public administration to offer them an affordable alternative,” she concluded.