Gortázar (CaixaBank) calls for country consensus to tackle the housing crisis and warns that it can become a bottleneck

The CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar, has been forceful about the housing crisis that is being experienced in Spain. The bank’s chief executive has called for reaching a consensus at the country level that will allow this situation to be reversed. “Consensus is needed to ensure that housing works and does not become a bottleneck for the economy,” he commented. During the presentation of the quarterly results, in which the entity has touched 4.4 billion in profits in the first nine months, the banker has focused on the need to streamline procedures and find a way to attract more capital.

“The problem will not be fixed overnight,” he pointed out after highlighting the deficit of almost 600,000 houses calculated by the Bank of Spain (BdE). In this sense, he urges to streamline bureaucratic procedures and recalled that CaixaBank is an “active” bank in terms of developer credit. Within the framework of the first anniversary of the DANA that devastated part of the Valencian Community and Castilla-La Mancha, claiming the lives of more than 230 people, Gortázar has urged to take advantage of the tailwinds of the economy and invest more in infrastructure in order to avoid catastrophes of this magnitude. “European funds have caused the economy to grow strongly, but with political instability we are going to encounter some bottlenecks, such as housing,” he insisted.

Gortázar has also addressed the banking tax, for which CaixaBank will disburse 600 million throughout the year, charged to the 2024 accounts. “The tax causes unfair imbalances and penalizes banks like CaixaBank, the entity with the greatest social roots,” he explained after alleging that its payment has a negative impact on both La Obra Social, given that Criteria receives fewer dividends to allocate to social initiatives, such as the State through the FROB, that “we are all Spaniards.” “The tax is paid by Obra Social and the State, the shareholders of other entities do not pay it,” he argued.

Rules out participating in a merger

The presentation also addressed the issue of mergers in Spain amid the failure of BBVA’s hostile takeover bid for Banco Sabadell, in which it barely received 25% support. In this context, Gortázar has expressed the short track record that these types of corporate operations usually have in banking, with the focus on applying changes to the legislation. The CEO of CaixaBank was one of the first to raise his voice about the need to apply changes in a scenario separate from this last process. Now it puts this issue back in the center of debate.