Patricia de las Heras of Vox, whose support for the Partido Popular government is now shaky, said that after a year in government, "the miracle cures" had failed.
Housing minister, José Luis Mateo, responded by saying he has confidence that homes will start to become available this year under the government's Safe Rental programme. This is due to start this autumn.
"I wish housing policies would generate immediate effects, but the reality is that everything takes time," Mateo told Carol Marqués of the opposition PSOE. "They (PSOE) should know this, because they made policies that did not solve anything." He promised that the government would soon release information regarding its initiatives - Safe Rental, Build to Rent and conversion of commercial premises into residential accommodation.
President Prohens said: "After one year, no matter how good the policies are, you cannot reverse eight years without housing policies."
Meanwhile, yet another study has come out regarding the cost to rent. Property website Idealista reports that renting a studio in Palma costs almost twice as much as renting a room - 950 euros versus 500 euros. The rent for a room has risen 25% over the past year; for a studio it has increased 19%.
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Until the government tackle the problem of squatter rights (so easily exploited by criminal gangs) they will never tackle the housing problem. Landlords just don’t have rights. So they don’t risk renting their properties. This leads to empty properties and honest renters suffering, because of the shortage of rental properties. It’s simple …. Squatters have rights - which are exploited by criminal gangs. It’s easy, the gangs pop families into rental properties. They stop paying rent and claim ‘squatters rights’. Then the gangs charge the landlords thousands of euros to remove the ‘squatters’. It’s an illegal money making machine. And now there’s a new criminal scheme. First the gangs identify houses that are empty for ‘periods’ of time. They break in, they change the locks. Then, and this is the clever bit, the gang sell the new key to people desperate to rent. Who then (you’ve guessed it) claim squatters rights. It’s desperate. But the criminal gangs are making a killing. And the government has done absolutely nothing to tackle this problem. Apart that is, from popping their heads firmly in the sand.
Radical junior coalition partner of current government says miracle cure for a highly complex and incredibly difficult issue has not been achieved after 1 year. Funny, that's eerily similar to what the last radical junior coalition partner said about the last government.