The houses that will be built on the land of the public entity Sareb will have a maximum average price of 7.6 euros per square meter in the 39 municipalities where they will be raised. That will mean a monthly rent for a new 80-meter apartment of 608 euros or 760 euros for another 100 meter apartment, if the usual dimensions of residences in Spanish cities are taken into account. This is clear from the documents published this Friday by the Asset Management Company from Bank Restructuring (Sareb) on its website, for the allocation of the land of what is known as Vienna Affordable Housing Project for lease.
The specifications reveal all the municipalities that Sareb has chosen for this tender, which it has prepared with the help of the consulting firm PwC. In the scale published by the public entity, the city of Madrid will have the highest price when the homes are rented, specifically 11.6 euros per square meter as the maximum amount. That means an income of 928 euros per month for an 80-meter apartment or 1,116 euros for a 100-meter apartment. In the case of storage rooms and garages in these new buildings, the amount will be 5.8 euros per square meter. But the price could be even lower if the builder of those buildings calculates it can offer the cheapest rents.
For the Spanish capital, Sareb has chosen floors in the future neighborhood of Los Berrocaleswhich is still to be developed and where the first homes have just begun in an area where more than 20,000 houses will be built.
By placing a maximum cap on this type of new and affordable housing, what is known as bad bank guarantees affordable rent for tenants, cheaper than at the free price. In the municipality of Madrid, for example, at market price the average amount was 20.4 euros per square meter in the month of September, according to data from Idealista.
Cartagena (Murcia) appears as the cheapest location in Sareb’s calculations, where the maximum will be 5.4 euros per square meter, or in other words, a residence of maximum 80 meters will have a cost of 432 euros and one of 100 meters will reach 540 euros at most. At market price, this rent is currently 8.1 euros per square meter, according to Idealista.
The second most expensive location will be Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 9.5 euros per square meter, followed by Terrassa (Barcelona) with 9.4 euros and Maó (Menorca) with also 9.4 euros. On the side of the cheapest municipalities appears Gines (Seville) with 5.9 euros and Ribeira (A Coruña) with 6.1 euros.
Sareb, company controlled by the FROB (dependent on the Ministry of Economy), launched the Vienna Project last year to build between 12,000 and 15,000 homes affordable price on the entity’s land. The specifications that are now known correspond to a first phase for 3,770 houses in 50 plots of the aforementioned 39 municipalities.
To build these properties, the public company is allying itself with companies that will have to invest around 460 million euros, according to Sareb calculations, to build this park, which will have 3,770 houses in the first phase. Specifically, the winning companies will collect rent from the buildings for 80 years. This is a type of public-private collaboration contest that has been carried out in different regions and municipalities and has attracted both residential developers and large investment funds to this business.
The lands are located in 10 autonomous communities and 24 provinces, mainly those that weigh the most in the portfolio from Sareb (which received the assets in 2012 from the troubled savings banks after the real estate bubble burst in 2008). Since the bad bank It became controlled by the public sector in 2022, its strategy has shifted to providing solutions to the problem of housing accessibility. For example, Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government, announced last year that the entity would put 50,000 homes in cheap rentals, of which a part correspond to this Vienna Project.
To access these homes, the family unit must prove income that is at most 7.5 times the annual Multiple Effects Public Income Indicator (Iprem), which currently stands at 7,200 euros per year, that is, that income does not exceed 54,000 euros. Additionally, what you pay for rent cannot be more than 30% of your family income.
Lots, locations and deadlines
Now comes the time for potential investors to analyze the specifications and check if the competition raises interest for private capital. On some occasions it has happened that certain lots, due to the location of the soil, have been left deserted, as happened in the so-called Plan Vive of the Community of Madrid. The deadline to participate in this tender opened this Friday and ends on January 15, 2025. Sareb will resolve the process in the first half of next year, so it is not expected that the buildings will be built until 2027 at the earliest. Large developers such as Aedas, Culmia, Neinor or Vía Ágora have participated in various of these public plans.
Sareb, an entity chaired by Javier Torres, has divided the competition into seven lots, so companies, or a union of several of them, will be able to opt for one or more of them. To configure these lots, a criterion of proximity has been taken into account, which makes it more attractive for regional developers to be able to attend the geographical option where they have activity.
The first batch groups together plots from Andalusia, specifically from the towns of Seville, Vélez-Málaga, Granada and Gines (Seville). Lot two includes Asturias, Galicia and Castilla y León, where plots are offered in Gijón, Salamanca, Arroyo de la Encomienda (Valladolid), Ribeira (A Coruña), Lugo and Cangas (Pontevedra).
Lot three, the largest, includes Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In Barcelona it offers properties in Terrassa, Granollers, Vic, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Pere de Ribes. In addition, the towns of Girona, Figueres (Girona), Lleida, Roda de Barà and El Vendrell in Tarragona appear, along with Maó (Menorca). Lot four joins Madrid, Humanes de Madrid, Zaragoza and Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara).
In the case of the Valencian Community, Sareb divides it into two lots. At number five is the Region of Murcia, which includes the capital and Cartagena, along with Alacant and Santa Pola. On lot six, in Valencia, construction is planned in La Pobla de Vallbona, La Pobla de Farnals, Massamagrell, Sagunt and Bonrepós i Mirambell, in addition to the city of Castelló. Finally, the seventh groups together Santa Cruz de Tenerife and in Gran Canaria the towns of Telde, Puerto del Rosario and Santa María de Guía.
