Speech by the President of the Government of Spain at the closing ceremony of the 'More social housing, more affordable housing' event

SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Dear Isabel, Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda. Of course, also the officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, the Government delegate, and officials and representatives from the various sectors directly or indirectly involved in housing. Good morning, and thank you for being here with us today.

It is clear - as Isabel, the Minister, mentioned earlier - that for far too many people in our country, looking for a home has become something of an obstacle course. It is a journey where you go online, search in the city where you live or where you want to start a new chapter in life - or in the neighbourhood where you grew up - and start crunching the numbers. What follows is a chain of - unfortunately, and all too often - compromises and sacrifices. A home that would take up more than half your salary. A single room for the price of a whole house. A listing with absolutely impossible terms. This situation is not unique to Spain; the Minister for Housing mentioned this earlier. It occurs in many other countries around the world, particularly within the European Union. And it sums up something I consider vitally important: it is a tremendous injustice that having a decent home has become, for too many people, an idealistic and almost impossible aspiration. And I refuse to accept it. I think all of us here refuse to accept this harsh reality. We must ensure that owning or renting a home becomes a realistic aspiration within people's reach, with rents that are realistic in relation to real wages. That is the purpose of this organisation, Casa 47, Spain's State Housing and Land Agency, which we established a few months ago by transforming the former SEPES, building on the vision for Spain that we established a few years back and which today is launching this first website for the State Public Housing Stock.

A website that already lists 800 available homes - 800 available homes. And very soon, another 1,500 units distributed across the country will be added. I believe, as we saw in the video, it is crucial that this supply continues to grow. And it will do so, moreover, with ever-greater intensity, with new houses and new flats becoming available every quarter. Thanks to Casa 47, anyone will be able to easily view the available options and apply for the home that best suits their needs - and, naturally, their financial means - through a process that is both streamlined, which is important, and transparent, allowing them to track the status of the allocation process at all times.

But what we are presenting today is much more than a website, much more than a tool - however important it may be -; I believe it represents an unprecedented commitment to accessibility in social housing. Above all, it represents a determination - another step forward - to ensure we never repeat the mistakes of the past, mistakes the Minister alluded to earlier in her remarks. Forty-five years ago, 2.7 million subsidised housing units were built in Spain. Behind every single one of them lay public resources and the collective effort of us all, driven by a shared aspiration: that access to housing should not be a privilege, but a genuine possibility - a real chance to have a home from which to build a life. We all know what the experience has been like over the last 45 years. All those homes could today be part of a vast public housing stock, as is the case in many other parts of Europe. Today, unfortunately, that is not the case. And this did not happen by chance; it is the result of political decisions that, in our view, were misguided. It is the outcome of flawed policies that failed to place ordinary people at the heart of political action. Policies that facilitated and allowed housing to lose its protected status and cease serving the middle and working classes - in short, the ordinary people of our country. Thus, for example, vast amounts of public wealth were allowed to end up in the hands of entities such as vulture funds - funds that prioritise speculation over human dignity itself.

Such a thing must never happen again. We must learn from all these mistakes that have accumulated over recent decades, so that, clearly, this does not happen again under any other government - at any level of authority with jurisdiction over this matter. That certainly will not happen under the Government of Spain; that is why the Casa 47 homes, as the Minister mentioned earlier, will be protected forever. Forever. They will never become a business opportunity for a select few, nor will they be removed from the public housing stock when the economic cycle - or, of course, the political cycle - shifts. Because what is built through everyone's effort - and therefore funded by everyone's taxes - must evidently remain at the service of everyone.

At Casa 47, the rent will take into account the characteristics of each property - as is only to be expected - but it will also take into account the economic situation of each town and region. I believe it is crucial to incorporate this into how prices are set as well. And I think that matters. It matters a great deal, because those who move into these homes will never have to spend more than 30% of their income on rent. In other words, no one will have to choose between paying their rent and putting food on the table. Ultimately, this means affordable rent, but also stable tenancies: contracts with an initial term of no less than 14 years, with the possibility of extending to 75 years. In short, a lifetime. Some would argue that this measure is interventionist in a market which, as we are seeing, does not self-regulate based solely on supply and demand. And, clearly, it is. It is an intervention in a market that is not functioning properly. And I think that, if anything, this demonstrates the value of public policy that steps in - as it should - when markets fail to function through the free interplay of supply and demand.

The market is broken; it is out of kilter. All of us here are well aware of this, particularly the citizens following this speech via live stream and the media. A market that excludes hundreds of thousands of families from an essential right is a market that isn't working; yet, those same voices will claim that any intervention like this is counterproductive. We are well aware of that particular view of how markets work - the idea that the proper course of action is simply to shrug one's shoulders and sit back, waiting for the market to self-regulate. But we have been following this line of thinking for over 45 years now. Put simply, what is being called for is the application of the very same policies that led Spain into disaster two decades ago. This Government is not going to step aside. That is not our intention - nor has it ever been our approach - throughout the successive crises we have faced. I would point, for instance, to the Iberian solution we put forward to tackle the impact of the energy shock on prices and the cost of living caused by Putin's war in Ukraine; that, too, was a public intervention in a market - the energy market - that was failing to function properly.

This is precisely what we must do in the housing market as well. And to echo what the minister said: all levels of government - not solely the General State Administration - must act; we cannot stand by while young people and families in our country are condemned to choose between paying their rent and living without anxiety when the 30th of the month arrives. Of course, we are intervening in this housing market using every possible tool and a volume of resources - something that must be acknowledged and highlighted - unprecedented in our country's democratic history. Over these years, we have increased housing policies eightfold and passed the first Housing Law of our democracy. A law that - and I will never tire of repeating this - works wherever it is applied; we are already seeing scientific, empirical evidence that some of the mechanisms incorporated into the Housing Law are bearing fruit. And this is not just because it helps control rental prices - an important issue in itself - but also because it increases the housing supply, something that was doubted by certain economic and political stakeholders when the Housing Law was proposed and passed.This is already known, for instance, to the more than 9 million people living in the 317 towns and cities designated as "stressed housing zones" - such as the city of Barcelona, frequently cited as a prime example due to its size and its implementation of the Housing Law. There, the price of new contracts has dropped by no less than 4.7% since the designation, while in various towns in Gipuzkoa, prices have fallen by nearly 4%. In short, we are seeing very similar percentages wherever some of the Housing Law's mechanisms are being applied.

What happens where the Housing Law is not applied? Well, rental prices simply keep rising. And this raises a question: Who are those regional and local government officials governing for, when they have decided not to enforce a law that could clearly improve the lives of their residents? Do they govern for the people, especially ordinary citizens? Or do they govern in the interests of those who simply want to speculate in the housing market? I believe that when a regional executive blocks a law that works, when they refuse to make use of the tools provided by those laws that work - such as the Housing Law - simply because the law originated with the Government of Spain, it is not that government that suffers the harm. They harm young people who wish to become independent in that town or region. They harm the couple who wants to have a child and start a life together. They harm the family - or families - struggling, unfortunately, to make ends meet. They harm the person being priced out of the neighbourhood where they grew up and want to live, simply because they can no longer afford the rent.

I believe, ladies and gentlemen, friends, that housing policy is not about buying a massive, multi-million-euro penthouse - costing over 6 million euros - for the regional president of the day; especially when there are young people unable to find even 40 square metres to live in, while she wanted 200 square metres just for her terrace. Housing policy means ensuring that citizens can afford a decent home, a roof under which to build what we call a home - as, incidentally, our Constitution requires.

This government is clear on this: we stand with the people, with ordinary people, and I know for a fact that we are moving in the right direction. We certainly have to do much more - as the Housing Minister mentioned earlier - but we must also champion the new housing policy we have been implementing over the past eight years. We could make much faster progress if we had everyone's commitment - earlier I made specific reference to the regional authorities, as well as to the towns and, incidentally, those who, up to now, have confined themselves to doing just two things: firstly, prioritising their party's agenda; or, secondly, their political and personal interests, or serving the interests of investment funds and speculators, thereby sidelining the people they are supposed to govern in those regional governments and local authorities.

I am aware - we are aware - that enacting good laws is not enough; that much is clear. We also need to boost the construction of affordable housing. That is our commitment, and that is the aim of the 2026-2030 National Housing Plan, which we approved last April; after much debate - I recall at the Conference of Regional Presidents, where ultimately all regional governments signed on to that commitment - we have a plan backed by 7 billion euros, three times the funding of the previous State Housing Plan.

And I believe the data supports this approach. While it may not be enough - as I mentioned earlier - we are moving in the right direction. We have already mobilised over 120,000 affordable rental homes, and in the first quarter of 2026 alone, contracts for 2,800 new homes were put out to tender, marking the highest volume of public tendering in the last 18 years. And I believe that this, too, is a milestone that we should celebrate and for which we should, of course, express our gratitude to all those involved in the housing sector and in housing-related matters, such as the private sector and, of course, all the associations represented here today.

I believe that the Government of Spain will always be there, using every means at its disposal, providing the necessary resources, and promoting a legal framework that offers solutions and, consequently, removes barriers and obstacles. We also intend to pursue this in Parliament, working hand-in-hand with the other parliamentary groups. Returning to the presentation at hand: "Casa 47" - and the online portal we are launching today - represents another step toward that goal. It is a further step in the State-level policy we are driving forward through the General State Administration. Clearly, every home we add to the permanent social housing stock, every rental property we make affordable, and every family we help find a home in their own neighbourhood brings us a little closer to the country we aspire to be. And what sort of country do we want to be? A country where having decent housing is not a privilege for the few, but a right for everyone. That is what it means to govern for the people. One might say that it is easy to say, and harder to do, but we are undoubtedly moving in the right direction. We will not waver. That is our conviction. That is our determination. And thank you all for the shared commitment we hold regarding well-being, prosperity, and access to the right enshrined in Article 47 of our Constitution - which gives this public enterprise its name. I believe this is another positive change we have made in housing policy, and I am convinced it will gain more and more allies - not only socially and economically, as I see here in this room today, but also at the institutional level. That is all. Thank you very much, and congratulations, Minister.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)