Dos Hermanas decries VPO price hikes: 'It should not cost more than free housing'

Dos Hermanas deputy mayor Carmen Gil has blasted the rising cost of VPO housing, arguing it should not be more expensive than free-market homes. She criticized the Andalusian government for treating VPO as an investment.

Carmen Gil, deputy mayor of Dos Hermanas, claimed that a VPO in Seville city costs the same as in El Viso or Dos Hermanas, calling this 'absurd'. She spoke at a summer course of the University Pablo de Olavide in Carmona, during a round table on housing as a right.

Gil criticized the Andalusian government led by Juanma Moreno for what she described as a lax approach to housing policy. She argued that the regional government has facilitated the use of VPO as an investment rather than a right, and that it has violated aspects of the Local Autonomy Law of 2010 with the Andalusian Housing Law approved in the last legislature.

According to Gil, the price of VPO is determined by the Andalusian government, and the territorial parameter, one of the indices that sets the sale price, is subjective. 'A VPO in Seville capital should not cost the same as in El Viso or Dos Hermanas,' she said. She also highlighted the efforts of the Dos Hermanas city council in providing affordable housing, noting that despite limited public funds, the municipality has sufficient land. To date, the council has delivered 1,725 homes to facilitate homeownership, renouncing 14% of the profit from the sale of public land to allocate 12% to discounts for buyers and 2% to improving common areas in construction projects.

Gil opposed the lottery system for awarding VPOs, stating that 'housing and rights are not a lottery'. She also criticized the signing of an agreement with CASA 47, the state housing entity, to build 600 or more homes for affordable rent and with a purchase option.

During the same round table, researcher José Manuel Torrado from the University of Granada noted that 'Spain continues to be a society of owners with more and more tenants', and that 'we are facing generations that will probably never access homeownership'. He pointed out that rent acts as an amplifier of social inequalities, demonstrating the lack of public intervention in the market. Torrado also highlighted a 'decoupling' of prices from the purchase market: since 2012, rental prices have soared while the sales market has not risen as sharply. He mentioned the existence of 'submarkets of housing in Spain', polarized by geographical area.

Pau García, youth secretary of CCOO, defended the right to decent housing, discussing 'liminal spaces' that represent emptiness and solitude, and called for better coordination between public and private land management. She stressed the need to address issues such as the renovation of homes, touristification in the Mediterranean area, demographic changes, and the accumulation of properties by large capital.

Gil's intervention comes amid growing concerns about housing affordability in Spain, particularly in Andalusia, where the gap between incomes and prices has widened. The local government of Dos Hermanas has made affordable housing a priority, but warns that without changes in regional policy, efforts could be undermined.