Prohens' Safe Renting Failure: Now We Also Pay for Renovations

PalmaThe government insists with a stubborn obstinacy to sell us the Safe Rent program as housing policy, despite its unmitigated failure. It has captured a meager 4.1% of the flats it predicted: 82 out of 2,000. It has had to swallow the inflated figures it packaged to get headlines, amplified by TeleProhens, a public and propagandistic entity impervious to discouragement in the face of the single message that the Balearic Islands are doing well.

Not content with making citizens pay with our taxes a speculative 30% to inflate (even more) the owner's pocket, now the Government becomes a promoter of reforms. It will give up to 50,000 public euros to incorporate this housing into its failed program. While we pay for the works of a private owner (without forgetting the speculative 30%), the flat will be rented. We will have to see what the fine print says and how far the owner's commitment goes once the debt to all of us is settled. Will it be like the HPO that inevitably ended up on the free market?

The Safe Rent program has encountered bureaucracy and the lack of scruples of owners, who find sufficient payment guarantees with foreigners and high rents.

The Executive insists on a failed formula to avoid limiting prices, a measure that, without being a panacea, serves as a containment. Who will want to abandon the exploitation of tourist rentals when housing has become, in essence, a speculative good? Who will give up higher income just for ethics and solidarity with the expelled? Another proof that occupation is not a social problem and that landlords do not need guarantees to rent, only social consciousness to do so more fairly. They have plenty of solvent clients; just as the mayor of Palma has plenty of those who cannot afford a flat at an exorbitant price.

The PP will end the legislature without establishing the foundations of a long-term public housing policy, based on real investments. Expert Javier Burón insisted a few days ago in Palma that the key is to generate an ecosystem of strong public companies, cooperatives, and private operators willing to work with moderate and long-term profits. He knows what he's talking about because he has applied it in his public positions in different communities. In the Balearic Islands, no one has taken note.