Sumar asks Sánchez to “go further” in controlling housing costs and criticizes the exemption for householders from private revenue tax | Economy | EUROtoday

Housing is without doubt one of the points that has most divided the Government coalition lately. Sumar, a supporter of market intervention, has celebrated the accomplice’s change of tone, though he has requested to “go further” to make this management “effective.” Through its spokesperson, Ernest Urtasun, the group led by Yolanda Díaz has caught out its chest when remembering that among the many introduced initiatives there are measures which were proposed for months, such because the VAT taxation of vacationer residences or the stoppage of Sareb gross sales for incorporate their houses into the state park.

“This change in discourse is substantial. If we have reached this problem it is because PSOE and PP have shared for years that the market solved the problem on its own,” he stated without avoiding criticism of some of the measures of the plan, in particular, the intention to approve the law of the land (which Sumar opposed in the Council of Ministers and which was withdrawn in Congress due to lack of support) or the personal income tax bonus for those owners who rent under price control. Urtasun has highlighted its disagreement with the 100% exemption from income tax for homeowners who rent their homes at prices referenced to the new reference index. The person in charge of Sumar has opted to apply sanctions for those who do not comply with this pricing mechanism.

As the Minister of Culture has explained, now it is time to discuss the formulas to apply this intervention and he has demanded that the PSOE advance in five aspects: prevent the purchase of housing for speculative use and not limit it only to non-EU residents; condition state housing funds to the application of rental price control by the autonomous communities; subject tourist and seasonal rentals (now exempt) to this control system; detail the amount for the “deployment” of the general public housing inventory within the subsequent Budgets; and “stabilize” rental contracts with longer phrases to keep away from abusive worth will increase.

Podemos, which has been distancing itself from the Government for some time, has referred to the battery of measures announced this Monday as a “effective announcement of [Pedro] Sánchez and the PSOE.” “Anything other than lowering rents by 40% by law and prohibiting the purchase of housing other than to live in and outlawing pseudo-companies like Desokupa will be teasing citizens,” said Pablo Fernández, Secretary of Organization of the party. “The Government is playing with fire when it comes to housing and it is going to end up burning. (…) Rentiers and vulture funds are rubbing their hands because PSOE and PP seem to announce different measures, but they are the same,” he criticized.

“The measures do not respond to the situation,” according to the tenants union

The reaction of the tenants’ union to the measures announced by Sánchez has not been long in coming. The spokesperson for the Catalan organization Sindicat de Llogasteres, Carme Arcarazo, stated this Monday that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has ignored in his conference the demands that the housing protesters have been demanding in the streets. “When we look for an apartment, we only find seasonal rentals and rubbish contracts, and none of the measures announced will change this,” he stated. “The announced measures do not respond to the main demands: halving prices, indefinite contracts, regulating seasonal rentals and prohibiting speculative purchases.”

Arcarazo has also mentioned that, after the social outbreak, Sánchez “has modified his speech”, which is why he now recognizes that the financial use of housing is contrary to guaranteeing it as a right. “The rich do not stop accumulating more and more apartments while people cannot access them, and when we look for an apartment in the rental market we only find seasonal rentals and garbage contracts. None of the announced measures address this situation,” said Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for the Llogateres Union.

Added to this critical reaction to Sánchez’s housing plan is that of several actors in the real estate and construction market, who point out that the package is interventionist and unilateral, which is why they demand a State pact and a rapprochement of political forces.

The dozen housing measures presented this Monday — which include a 100% exemption from personal income tax (IRPF) for owners who rent according to the reference index, an increase in taxation for non-EU foreign buyers, a new guarantee mechanism for owners and tenants or a new PERTE with European funds dedicated to the construction of houses—seek to stimulate affordability and facilitate access, especially among young people. However, the General Council of Official Associations of Real Estate Agents of Spain (COAPI) has classified them as generic. “The Government continues to opt for interventionist policy, which is not the most appropriate,” the organization stated. Furthermore, he has pointed out that to guarantee accessibility to the housing market, “a deep research and consensus of the political forces is important, interested by a strategic plan of the State, if housing is to be transformed into that fifth pillar of the State.” of Wellbeing.”

Along these lines, the sector’s employers’ association, FADEI — acronym for Federation of Associations of Real Estate Companies —, has considered that given “the national nature” of the problem, it is not enough to accept the proposals of a single political party. “Some of the measures announced by Sánchez are good and others, although well-intentioned, are difficult to implement. That is why we need the union of all political forces,” FADEI stated. “These types of events are positive so that all actors taking part in the real estate market can work together to face the housing crisis,” he concluded.

For its part, the National Construction Confederation (CNC) has echoed the call against politicization: “Politics must address the problems of citizens, which is why we need to lower our weapons,” the organization has demanded. organization. The president of the CNC, Pedro Fernández Alén, has assured that in the proposals that both the Government and PP have made regarding the Land Law there are more similarities than discrepancies, which is why he calls for a State pact to unblock it.

“The government and opposition must address the problems of the citizens, not their own. And housing is the biggest one we face as a society,” Fernández Alen reiterated. In time to promote some of the proposals, in his opinion, most effective. “The CNC values ​​any measure that seeks to stimulate the supply of housing, free up buildable land and promote tax credits.” This procedure “would be more effective than the interventionism embodied in some measures broken down this morning and which could end up aggravating legal uncertainty,” they added.

Some of the specific criticisms of the CNC attack the creation of a large public housing company to build and manage, before “reinforcing public-private collaboration.” From a fiscal point of view, the employers’ association has defended the implementation of ITP or IBI bonuses for the purchase of a home, as well as implementing a guarantee program for young people to guarantee the granting of mortgages and generalize the updating of the Modules of the Housing plans.

Likewise, the organization Facua – Consumers in Action, has regretted that the Government has not responded to its request to expropriate the use of empty homes from large owners so that they can be used for rentals at social prices regulated by the Administration. This was one of several demands that the association conveyed to the president last October, as Facua recalled in a statement.

The response of the PP and the Workers Commissions

The Popular Party has called the interventionist measures and persevering in error. The PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, declared this Monday at a press conference that the head of the Executive “says issues which are unimaginable to materialize.” Specifically, it has rejected limiting purchases by non-resident non-EU foreigners, which the Government will do by raising the tax levy to 100%, which they consider a risk for investment.

The popular ones rather defend their own housing plan, presented last Sunday in Oviedo, which is committed to tax reductions, freeing up land, giving incentives to rent out housing or protecting owners with an anti-squatting law. In addition, they promote a reduction in VAT to 4% on the purchase of new housing and thus continue the line to be followed by the PP barons, who have committed to reducing the property transfer tax for young people to 4% in the communities that they govern.

This response, which contrasts with that of the overall secretary of the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), Unai Sordo, who has said on his social networks that the union will analyze the specificity and depth of the measures introduced this Monday by the Government by way of housing. However, he considers that, thus far, these measures represent the “most ambitious approach” that has been made to handle the housing downside, “of which public policy has been absent” and during which it has been capable of be “part of the problem.”