The Mayor of Almuñécar, Juan José Ruiz Joya, visited the building site for the new VPOs (subsidised rental-housing) under construction behind Las Góndolas.
This project, promoted by VISOGSA and supported by several public administrations, will increase the supply of affordable housing in Almuñécar and La Herradura.
The project has a budget of over 16.4m euros through public funding and includes the building of 60 rental apartments, as well as 60 storage units, 60 attached parking spaces, and an additional 100 public parking spaces for short-term use.
During the visit, the Mayor was accompanied by the Councilor for Public Works, who pointed out that this kind of economical, rental accommodation was a necessity within the municipality to provide affordable housing for young people and working families.
The Mayor also considers that “this development is designed so that our young people can stay and live in their hometown, build their lives here, and have real opportunities without being forced to leave due to a lack of housing.”
The land was publicly owned land, which was donated so that the provincially owned, development company, VISOGSA, could build the required housing complex. The Provincial Council provided 13-million euros and the Junta another 1.3m euros, whilst a further 1.9m euros was from EU funding (Next Generation).
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: Affordable Rental Properties, Visogsa, Las Gondolas, Young People
news, andalucia, granada, costa tropical, almunecar, affordable rental properties, visogsa, las gondolas, young people
Foreigners have been a contributing factor but Almuñécar has alway been a holiday destination for Granadinos and Almuñécar has always screwed them over rent. I remember that in 1985 in August they were renting out a mattress of the floor of a kitchen for 700 pesetas a night when you would be paying 30,000 pesetas a month rent for a 3-bedroom flat all year round. The reason for the high prices on the coast in general is because of what AirB&B had done not only to Spain, but to just about everywhere that is a tourist destination in Europe.
I should add that in the case of Almuñécar, Los Granadinos have always taken Almuñécar as their own private holiday residence. Spain used to have the highest 2nd-home per capita in Europe and so most of the new apartments blocks are second homes for people from Granada and Madrid.
Going back to foreign influence on house prices and rentals, that started at the end of the 90s. If you take Otivar, for instance, most of the houses in the centre of the village were empty and young people were not interested in them. You could pick up a large town house for 1.5m pesetas (9,000 euros). Within ten years those same houses were going for over 20m pesetas (120,000) because Otivar had been discovered by foreigners who had been accustomed to prices on the Costa del Sol (Málaga). Villagers had begun asking for silly money people “daft” guiris where snapping them up thinking that they were getting a bargain — they were, compared to the Costa del Brits, but not in a mountain village in the province of Granada where there were no foreigners except yours truly.
So going back to your question, are foreigners to blame? Only in part because the main problem is AirB&B which is why city councils across Spain are cracking down on them.
Was social housing necessary before the arrival of us foreigners?