One of the eligibility criteria for social housing in Malaga is set to change significantly in the coming months. It concerns the number of years ... of registration on the local council's register required to apply for social housing.
Although the city council had planned to increase the number of years of registration from one to three, this period will ultimately grow to five years, as is the case in the city of Madrid.
Applicants will be required to have been registered on the local council's register for five consecutive years or for at least five years within the last ten years. The aim is to prevent the "pull effect" the latest social housing lotteries in the city have created. Over the past two years, there have been 13 draws.
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In a motion this past July, the Vox municipal group urged the local ruling team to increase the number of years to five in the case of protected homes for rent and to ten for protected homes for sale. The PP ruling party rejected the proposal.
In March, councillor for housing Francisco Pomares announced that, as part of the forthcoming amendment to the bylaw governing the municipal register of applicants for social housing, the minimum requirement of one year's registration on the local council's register would increase.
Pomares then pointed out that other local authorities, such as Barcelona and Bilbao, had already done so, with the requirement having been raised to three years. He did not specify by how many years the registration period would increase. Initially, the council considered setting it at three, but ultimately opted for five.
This new condition will apply immediately, without the need to wait for the amendment to the regulations governing the register of applicants. It will apply to the city council's next social housing allocation draw: a development comprising 70 rental flats, which is the only one remaining to be allocated out of the 1,000 social housing units built to the west of the Teatinos campus by the municipal housing society and Lagoom Living, on land provided by the city council.
The application process will open in the coming months, either at the end of the year or in early 2027. In the case of privately-led social housing projects, the city council may suggest to developers that they also extend this period, but it will not be able to oblige them to do so until the amendment to the regulations governing the registration of applicants has been approved and comes into force.
Other objectives are to bring the register into line with the new Andalusian housing act, to allow registration by means of a declaration of responsibility and set the validity of the registration at two years, after which it would have to be renewed by the resident concerned. However, it will still take several months for this amendment to the bylaw to be approved, as it must undergo a period of public consultation and legal review.