The Housing Minister of the Canary Islands Government, Sebastián Franquis, has announced the launch of the Empty Housing program, which will put around 700 homes on the affordable rental market in the coming years with a budget of 8.1 million euros.
From this Wednesday, Canarian families can now register as home seekers and homeowners can offer their unoccupied homes, with the aim of promoting the release of hundreds of homes for rent onto the market.
The project will be managed by the public company VISOCAN through its website, where users will find detailed information about the program, as well as conditions and forms to apply, whether you want to offer a home for rent or want to be awarded one, on an affordable rental basis.
“We are presenting the launch of the Empty Housing program, within the Canary Islands Housing Plan, whose objective is to bring housing to the market to make it available to those families with fewer resources and, therefore, fewer possibilities to rent a home on the open market,” explains Minister Franquis. “We are talking about a significant group of families in our Community who, although they have income, find it difficult to find a rental within their reach and also have problems accessing protected housing in the public park.”
For his part, Víctor González, assured that, “with an economic endowment of 8,105,000 euros, we are going to make available to families with very limited resources, more than 700 homes under a very affordable rental regime, in the next 4 years and this web application is the beginning of the road for it". "It is a program with a high social content and very committed to families who, having some type of minimum income, cannot access the private market,” he adds.
The beneficiaries will be families or cohabitation units with limited economic resources, applicants for Officially Protected Housing (VPO), under a private rental promotion regime, registered, as a prior and essential condition in the Registry of Applicants for Protected Housing in the Canary Islands, and whose income is between 1.5 IPREM (Public Indicator of Income for Multiple Effects, an index used in Spain as a reference for the granting of aid, subsidies), that is, about 10,422 euros, and 4 (27,792 euros) and 5 IPREM (34,740 euros), in the case of large families or with disabled people in their care.
These families will pay a rental income that, in no case, will be higher than 30% of their gross annual income, with the minimum rental period being 3 years, extendable to 7. The maximum monthly payment established for these families, according to their income, will not exceed 500 euros per month.
Owners of empty free homes interested in incorporating them into this program must request it in writing to VISOCAN, who, within a maximum period of three months, will prepare a report on the state of the properties with a favorable or unfavorable assessment of the same. During the rental period, VISOCAN will pay the monthly rent to the property from the entry of the first tenant until the termination of the contract and return of the home, regardless of whether there are tenants or not and whether they pay the rent or not.
The offered properties must have an equipped kitchen, hob, sink, washing machine, refrigerator and fully equipped bathroom in perfect working order. The homes in this Empty Housing Stock must be used as a habitual residence, taking into account that when the rental period ends, VISOCAN will deliver the properties to their owners in the same state of conservation in which they received them.