The old Agricultural Chamber of Sant Joan dodges speculation and will house protected housing

Saint JohnThe old Agricultural Chamber of Sant Joan has circumvented real estate speculation, will be rehabilitated and will be allocated to social housing for young farmers in the Pla de Mallorca region.

The project to convert the building into housing, which was presented yesterday at the Sant Joan Town Hall, is the result of an agreement between the Government of the Balearic Islands and the Unió de Pagesos de Mallorca, the union that owns the property. These three homes will be the Ibavi's first development in Sant Joan.

The initiative plans to rehabilitate the building of the old Agricultural Chamber, located at Carrer de Belisari, 18, to create three public protection homes, on a rental basis, and which in principle will be intended for young farmers. If there is no demand from this sector, they will be offered on a regular social rental basis.

The Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility of the Government, José Luis Mateo, and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, Joan Simonet, presented the project together with the mayor of Sant Joan, Catalina Perelló, and the general secretary of the Unió de Pagesos, Sebastià Ordines.

The homes will be allocated to young farmers between eighteen and forty years of age who meet the requirements established to access protected housing. The development will allow for a new social use of the old Agricultural Chamber and facilitate access to housing for young people linked to the agricultural sector, as agreed by the Government and the Unió de Pagesos when launching this initiative. The agricultural chambers were created in 1977 as consultative bodies of the Administration on matters of agriculture and livestock and came to have their own infrastructure financed by farmers. These entities were dissolved at the beginning of the 21st century.

In this regard, from UP, Ordines recalled that "for more than 20 years the Union of Farmers demanded that the agricultural chambers return to their legitimate representatives and that they be distributed at the time among the existing agricultural organizations". Regarding the property located in the center of Sant Joan, near the Town Hall, Ordines informed that Unió de Pagesos received "a multitude of offers, mostly from foreign capital, to buy this agricultural chamber, but the ethics of Unió de Pagesos prevented this from happening. Therefore, we automatically went to Ibavi to find a solution". "In the end, the housing crisis affects all the towns of Mallorca and Sant Joan is not saved. Therefore, I believe it is a day to celebrate, a day on which Unió de Pagesos returns this agricultural chamber to Sant Joan. And from here in 14 years, when Unió de Pagesos recovers one of the three homes, obviously, those who are in Unió de Pagesos will decide what social purpose to give it at that time".

The general secretary of UP ended by "encouraging other entities that have agricultural chambers in the towns to take a step forward, not to want to play Monopoly and to decide to create social housing".

Two bedrooms

The development will consist of three two-bedroom homes, one of which will be adapted for people with disabilities. The homes will have usable areas between 51.88 and 54.95 m² and there will be one on each floor, with independent access and services. The building currently has a ground floor, first floor, and porch.

The rehabilitation project, which plans to add another floor to gain an apartment, has a budget of €470,000 plus VAT. The works are expected to begin this year and, once started, have an execution period of 18 months.

Ibavi will maintain possession and management for fourteen years and, after this period, one of the homes will be handed over to the agricultural entity as consideration for the transfer.