Madrid City Council will put out to public tender, in the coming days, the specifications to build more than 700 homes on eight municipal residential plots in the ‘Desarrollo del Este-Los Berrocales’ area of the Vicálvaro district. Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida announced the city’s first affordable rent-to-buy developments at the opening of the first Housing Conference organised by the newspaper El Debate. The homes will be let at affordable rents, and tenants will be able to buy them after seven years.
How the model works
The council presents the formula as an alternative to protected housing for groups that do not meet its requirements but cannot obtain bank financing on market terms. The winning bidder must reserve at least 50% of the homes on each plot for rent to people under 35. A typical three-bedroom home of 90 m² built would rent for around 949.5 euros a month, more than 30% below market. Underground parking spaces would rent for a maximum of 60 euros a month, and surface spaces for up to 35 euros. Price updates can never exceed 2% a year. At the point of sale, a home of this type could be bought for about 300,000 euros. Once purchased, homes cannot be freely transferred for 15 years.
Tenants must prove that household income is below set limits: 61,200 euros a year for households of more than six people, 54,000 euros for two to five people and 43,200 euros for one person. They must also have been registered in Madrid for one uninterrupted year before the contract, or for three of the previous five years, or have worked in Madrid for the previous two years.
Three lots
| Lot | Homes | Plots | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | more than 260 | 4 | 27,831,000 euros |
| 2 | around 230 | 2 | 19,608,452 euros |
| 3 | more than 210 | 2 | 17,963,872 euros |
Bidders can apply for one or more lots, submitting a single proposal for each. Reductions in maximum rents score up to 50 points, lower capped sale prices another 20 points, and building design up to 20 points, with priority for more sustainable and efficient construction.
Next steps
Bids can be submitted for three months from the day after the notice is published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM). The council will soon tender a further package of homes under the same formula in Los Ahijones, also in Vicálvaro.