The Government will require 15 years of residence in the Balearic Islands to access the 323 public housing units it will build in Palma

PalmaThe Government tightens the requirements to access the new public housing it is promoting in the Balearic Islands. The 323 Official Protection Housing units (HPO) that the Balearic Institute of Housing (Ibavi) will build next to the Velòdrom Illes Balears in Palma will require proof of a minimum of 15 years of legal residence in the Islands to be eligible. The development was already announced on March 30, and this Monday the Government and the Consell de Mallorca formalized the free transfer of the land.

The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, and the President of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, have signed the agreement at the Consolat de Mar that will allow the development to be built on a plot of over 33,000 square meters. According to Prohens, this is the one that aims to become the largest public housing development in Mallorca and will involve an investment of 3.4 million euros.

The 323 housing units will be official protection housing and, like the rest of the developments promoted by the Government through Ibavi, will require proof of a minimum of 15 years of legal residence in the Balearic Islands to be eligible.

The development will be added to the nearly 1,200 public housing units that the Government is currently promoting through Ibavi. In addition, it will be processed as a strategic residential project and an investment of regional interest, two figures that, according to the Executive, will allow administrative deadlines to be reduced and its execution to be accelerated.

Next legislative term

Prohens explained that the processing of the project will begin during this legislature and that this procedure will reduce the procedures to approximately one and a half years, compared to the almost ten years that the ordinary route would require. The forecast is that the homes can be delivered during the next legislature.

For his part, the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, José Luis Mateo, specified that before starting the works, the land will have to be urbanized, a process that will be carried out in parallel with the administrative processing. He also announced that the design of the development will foreseeably be defined through a competition of ideas.

The agreement also establishes that Ibavi will transfer to the Consell de Mallorca 35 protected dwellings for social use, a premises of about 400 square meters so that a rehearsal space for musical groups can be set up, and a plot of about 3,000 square meters for future island facilities.

Galmés highlighted that the plot, valued at 4.6 million euros, will allow the development of "the largest public housing development in the history of Mallorca". Despite recalling that the Consell does not have competences in housing matters, he defended the free transfer of the land to contribute to facilitating access to affordable housing for the people of Mallorca.