The Balearic Government has questioned the complaint of the PSIB-PSOE on the alleged waiver to exercise the right of first refusal in more than 520 real estate transactions since the beginning of the legislature and has defended that the decisions of the IBAVI respond to technical and legal criteria, not political.
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The controversy was addressed in the plenary session of the Parliament held last Tuesday, when the socialist deputy Mercedes Garrido said that the regional government had only exercised this right on 35 occasions throughout the Balearic Islands. According to the PSOE, 13 of those operations would correspond to Ibiza and none to Formentera, although it did not specify which were those files or their typology.
When asked by La Voz de Ibiza for details of these 13 operations on the island, the PSOE avoided giving details and referred this media to the Conselleria d’Habitatge.
Consulted by this newspaper, the Conselleria maintains that the figure of 520 operations cannot be interpreted as 520 homes available for immediate purchase. “The IBAVI exercises the right of first refusal
Which operations enter
The Government reminds us that under the umbrella of the right of first refusal, a wide range of operations are notified, which do not always meet the legal requirements to be acquired by the Administration. These include transfers of subsidized housing, operations linked to large holders, purchases of plots of land or sales of entire buildings, among other cases.
One of the main reasons why IBAVI rules out intervening is the presence of tenants. “IBAVI has never purchased housing with tenants. Neither with the Pacte “, they emphasize from the Conselleria. According to the Govern, part of the operations cited by the PSOE would include this circumstance, which would make them unfeasible. “However much they now try to confuse people,” they add.
This argument has come up especially as a result of some cases in Menorca that left-wing parties have used to criticize the current Government. From the Conselleria they insist that this criterion has not changed with respect to the previous legislature.
In his response in parliament, the minister Josep Maria Mateo contrasted historical data and stated that the Govern del Pacte renounced more than 1,000 operations of pre-emption and withdrawal between 2018 and June 2023. A data that the current Executive uses to relativize the socialist criticism and contextualize the volume of discarded files.
Purchases and promotions that do go ahead
In response to the opposition’s denunciation, the Conselleria d’Habitatge emphasizes that so far in this legislature, the operations of pre-emption, withdrawal and other purchases will allow the IBAVI to increase the public housing stock by 172 homes in the Balearic Islands, and assures that the agency continues to work on new acquisitions.
In the case of Ibiza, the Govern points out that the purchases underway will total at least 19 homes. The main operation is the acquisition of a plot of land from Sareb in Sant Antoni de Portmany, where IBAVI is planning a development of 18 public housing units, which will be the institute’s first in this municipality in more than 15 years.
The debate on the use of the right of first refusal takes place in a context of housing emergency, especially acute in Ibiza, where the demand for public housing far exceeds the available supply and keeps in focus any decision related to access to housing.
