The new public company will buy homes from individuals and will begin to offer its apartments on an online portal in 2026
House 47 From now on, it will be the body in charge of managing all public housing in the hands of the State. The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, presented this Thursday the new organization born from the reconversion of the Public Land Business Entity (Sepes), which aspires to bring with it not only a name change but also a new comprehensive approach with which to respond to the housing crisis and shore up housing as the fifth pillar of the welfare state. Its mandate thus includes not only the management of existing homes, but also the incorporation of new properties. In that commitment to expanding the public park will explore the purchase of homes from individuals as a new avenue. The apartments you obtain, along with those already transferred from Sareb, will be available to citizens through an online portal that is expected to begin operating in 2026.
Rodríguez announced this Thursday that the Government is preparing a public offer of 100 million to buy homes. This is a formula that the Ministry of Housing, through Sepes, has already tested in Valencia with the aim of acquiring apartments to rehouse those affected by DANA. For this purpose, it mobilized 25 million euros to obtain properties that could be occupied “immediately” or that could be renovated in a short time. Among other requirements, the apartments had to have a surface area of between 35 and 130 square meters, be empty and free of loads and have a furnished kitchen, living room, at least one independent bedroom and a bathroom.
It is still unknown what the conditions of the new offer will be and how many apartments the Government hopes to mobilize in this way, although the minister did emphasize this Thursday the intention to launch it “as quickly as possible.” This formula can allow the new Casa 47 to increase its park more quickly than it involves building promotions from scratch, something that will also fall within its tasks. In fact, in recent months, with the reconversion process already underway, the old Sepes has put out to tender the drafting of the projects for more than 1,600 homes distributed throughout different parts of the country. It also has other operations in a more initial phase such as the creation of 10,700 homes on the former military lands of Campamento.
“The company is not born empty-handed,” Rodríguez clarified this Thursday, who recalled that the Government has been transferring the homes in the hands of the State to the new entity to concentrate its management in a single organization. The largest transfer has been that of Sareb’s 40,000 apartments and 2,400 floors, with the capacity to build another 55,000 homes. The Government has committed to guaranteeing the permanent protection of all these properties as public housing, so that they cannot be disqualified and end up in private hands. “We say it’s over, because what is born public has to remain public,” the minister stressed at the presentation of Casa 47. “We cannot allow all this effort to end tomorrow in the hands of a few,” she insisted.
Of the 40,000 homes transferred from Sareb, the ministry estimates that there are about 13,000 ready to move into. These will be the first with which the online portal with which the new public company will make its homes available to citizens begins to operate. Anyone can register to consult and request available properties according to their profile. It is planned that This kind of public ‘Idealista’ will begin operating in 2026 and will not only serve as a showcase of housing, but also as a channel for tenants to communicate any incident to the administration. In fact, based on the experience of users, it is planned to design a system of penalties and bonuses to enhance the quality of the service, punishing, for example, managing entities that delay in resolving incidents and rewarding those that register greater satisfaction on the part of tenants.
These homes will be offered as rentals at affordable prices, although with a “global vocation.” 60% of the population will be eligible for themsince they will be aimed at families whose income is between 2 and 7.5 times the IPREM, which is currently equivalent to between 16,800 and 63,000 euros per year. The ministry points out that households that are below this threshold are supported with social housing.
Regarding the characteristics of the contracts signed with the new Casa 47, they will have an initial duration of 14 years, extendable up to 75 years, with extensions every seven years as long as the tenant maintains the access requirements. Besides, The price of these rentals will not exceed 30% of the average income in the area where the home is located, with the aim of guaranteeing its affordability.
