The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has dismissed the appeal filed in 2021 by a real estate company against the expropriation for social use of four properties owned by it in the municipality of Santa Eulària. The Contentious Administrative Chamber gives the reason to the Govern that presided Francina Armengol and that ordered the compulsory transfer of these four properties following a figure contemplated in the 2018 housing law for homes that were unoccupied for more than two years. The TSJIB bases its decision, among other arguments, on the fact that it is accredited that the Administration has acted to alleviate the lack of access to housing without achieving the desired objectives so the incorporation of more alternatives is required, according to what is collected in the sentence, advanced by Diario de Mallorca. The Court especially focuses on the number of requests for housing that the Balearic Housing Institute (Ibavi) fails to meet, with special mention to the case of Santa Eulària, where the expropriated properties are located. The Court insists that the existence of the problem of access to housing that leads the Administration to promote the figure of the assignment “is not mere conjecture”, but is supported by multiple objective data. “That situation, far from being close to being resolved, is getting worse every day,” says the text. “It seems difficult to deny that access to decent and affordable housing is one of the main problems facing a large sector of the Balearic population. But in addition these data evidence a worsening trend of the situation, hence the decision to implement reactive measures such as the one contemplated by Law 5/2018 can be considered justified,” it continues. The TSJIB, in short, believes the actual existence of an extraordinary situation serves to sufficiently explain the relevance of the decision adopted.
