It is, as he has stated, to guarantee transparency and knowledge of the evolution of the home rental market.
The minister stressed that in no case is it a question of amending the data and figures of the real estate portals, whose contribution has been valuable, even if it is more limited and partial information, but rather what is intended is to offer for the first time a statistical tool state on prices, so that individuals and different agents have an additional resource with which they can operate in this market.
As Ábalos has expressed, this index will allow all administrations to have a more precise knowledge of the rental market and reduce the margin of error in political decision-making. Therefore, it will be valuable to hold accounts of the decisions they are making. In addition, as explained, it will be useful to apply fiscal or other policies that increase the supply of rental housing and, thus, reduce prices.
The minister has made special mention of young people because they are the main victims of the systemic crisis that has shaken the speculative model since 2008. Now COVID-19 makes it necessary to meet the needs of the youngest, which is equivalent to strengthening the population segment on which will fall the arduous task of guaranteeing an inclusive reconstruction in Spain, he declared.
Promotion of the first State Housing Law
In this sense, Ábalos has announced that, among these public policies, the first State Housing Law will be promoted, which will contribute to guaranteeing equality for all Spaniards in their right to access decent and adequate housing.
The objective of this law will be to regulate aspects such as the provision of housing by public authorities as a public service of general interest, the shielding of the social function that housing must fulfill or establish mechanisms to prevent the alienation of parks. public housing, avoiding past practices that we cannot allow to repeat themselves.
To conclude, the minister wanted to remember that this price reference index is just one more measure within an ambitious program in the matter of housing that includes a Rehabilitation Plan, a Plan for Access to Housing, the 20,000 Plan and the new Law of Architecture and Quality of the Built Environment.
Regarding this last law, whose prior public consultation we are going to start tomorrow, the head of the Department has stressed that this project proposes the recognition of Architecture and the quality of the built environment as a basic element of the quality of life of people, as a asset of general interest that aims to preserve, spread and promote the architectural quality of our towns and cities.
State system of reference indices of the rental price of housing
The presentation of the first results of the State System of reference indices of the rental price of housing, which complies with the provisions of Royal Decree-Law 7/2019, of March 1, on urgent measures in the field of housing and rent , offers a series of reference data of great interest to approach the market, such as average prices and surfaces, characteristic of the different territorial enclaves, which are very useful for both public and private agents operating in this market, as well as for the set of citizens.
Thus, the main objectives of the System are fulfilled, to guarantee maximum transparency and knowledge of the evolution of the housing rental market and to serve for the application of public policies that increase the supply of affordable housing, through a Inter-administrative collaboration line coordinated by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. The Tax Agency, the General Directorate of Cadastre, the National Statistics Institute, the Bank of Spain, the College of Registrars and the Department of Economic Affairs of the Presidency of the Government, among others, have participated in this.
In this way, the data offered is the result of the exploitation of the information declared for tax purposes and of the cadastral databases, carried out by the Tax Studies and Statistics Service of the Tax Agency, on leases of habitual residence of the last four years whose information is available, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, corresponding to more than 11.2 million real estate properties that have been leased as habitual residence.
The presentation of the results is done through the ministerial portal, through five cartographic viewers, which present the data to each of the territorial levels: census section, district, municipality, province, autonomous community. In addition, it also offers the possibility of freely downloading all the information in a table format, facilitating interoperability and analysis by different operators and reuse of data. All of this can be accessed through:
The system offers the following data for each of the territorial entities, corresponding to the types of housing; collective and single-family, and for each of the years analyzed:
- Number of witnesses (houses).
- Average monthly rent of the lease (€ / m2 month)
- Average monthly amount of the lease (€ / month)
- Average lease area (m2)
And, of each one of the magnitudes of price and surface, three statistical values are offered: the median, the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile. This defines the rental situation in each territorial area in average terms (median), but A range of values is also offered, among which 50% of the rents in each area (25th and 75th percentiles) are located, which allows for a more accurate knowledge of the reality of rental in each area.
The presentation of these first results of the State System of reference indices of the price of housing rental based on the statistical exploitation of tax sources, constitutes the first step in a process of continuous improvement of the information on rental housing, which will be marked by an upcoming update with data for the 2019 financial year, scheduled for the last quarter of 2020, the exploration and analysis of new sources of information on rental prices and collaboration with the different competent territorial administrations, for the development and practical application of action measures to facilitate access to rental housing.
