Housing problems in Spain

Lately, there has been a lot of noise concerning the acquisition of houses by young people. Typically, a young couple wanting to buy a house need to get a 30 years mortgage that will have to pay with 50-70% of their net salary.

The will to decrease the price of the houses arrived to Government, that created a Ministry of Housing. It is to be noted that Central Government can not rule on this matter, since competence is attributed to Autonomous Regions.

Autonomous Regions are then proposing measures to decrease the price of the houses. These measures consist mainly in penalize any owner or landlord having an empty house.

For example, Basque Government is studying the possibility of setting a fine of 9€ (7$) each day a house is empty.

This measure (and the alikes) are always aiming at:

• Increasing taxes.
• Restricting freedom of owners.
• Harming private propriety rights.

Measures are never in the line of:

• Decreasing constructors costs.
• Decreasing the price that the city council can charge for selling building land.
• Decreasing taxes.

House-searching device, by Ministry of Housing.
( No kidding )