Figures from the College of Registrars indicate that 0.13% of all homes sold in the Balearics between June 2023 and June 2024 were VPO properties.
VPO stands for ‘vivienda de protección oficial’, a form of social or subsidised housing. The percentage of 0.13 placed the Balearics at the bottom of Spain’s regional list. Second to bottom was Galicia, where the percentage was almost four times greater – 0.49%.
The highest percentage of all was 4.84% in Navarre. The national average was 1.06%.
Over the twelve-month period, 13,185 homes were sold in the Balearics. Only 17 were VPO. In the case of Navarre, where there were 6,839 sales, 331 of these were VPO.
In one form or another, the total number of VPOs at the time of the election in May last year was 14,265. As the National Statistics Institute’s Housing Census for 2021 put the total number of dwellings in the Balearics at 652,123, the percentage of VPO was just over two per cent. Over the second four years of the Armengol government – 2019 to 2023 – the number of VPOs increased by some 40%.
Selling a VPO comes with strings attached. Ultimately, VPOs belong to the government, and a regulatory change under the last government meant that they could no longer be sold on the free market after a period of thirty years. The Ibavi housing agency establishes the value and all sales have to be authorised by the agency. In effect, the government always has the right of first refusal.
