The Valencia City Council will charge a 30% surcharge for this year's Real Estate Tax (IBI) for owners who appear in the registry of large holders with empty homes. This was announced by the Councilor for the Treasury this Wednesday, Borja Sanjuán, who has defended that it is a coercive measure that is not intended to increase collection but to ensure that there are more homes for rent to lower prices.
In a statement, Sanjuán explained that Valencia, like other large Spanish cities, suffers from a highly stressed rental market that affects "working people and especially young people when it comes to emancipating themselves." The councilor of the Treasury has indicated that although the "causes of this shortage of housing supply are several, there is an obvious one on which we have to act, which is the impact that both the conversion of houses to tourist apartments and the collection of houses are having by investment funds or vulture funds”.
For this reason, in this fiscal year a special surcharge of 30% in the IBI is going to be applied to the homes of the owners that appear in the register of large holders with empty homes prepared by the Generalitat. This year that 30% surcharge will be applied to a total of 41 homes in the municipality of Valencia that are owned by 6 large owners.
Sanjuán has indicated that "it is not a determining number but it does mark the roadmap and offers an x-ray of the situation in the city." The Councilor for the Treasury has highlighted as a clarifying case of why action must be taken that "there is a large fork that accumulates 29 empty homes in Poblats Marítims".
The measure is applied for the first time this year, once the Generalitat has prepared the registry of large holders with empty homes. As regulated by tax regulations, this record will be taken into account as of December 31, 2022. The Councilor for Finance has indicated that it is not the measure that will solve all housing problems "but it is a measure that makes it clear that" Those who come to speculate with housing instead of having it as a right are going to have a very difficult time in the city of Valencia”.
Sanjuán explained that "the list is dynamic and will increase" but he stressed that it is a process with all the guarantees: "the large holders can claim and can put the homes on the market, which is basically the objective of this measure, which It is not made to charge more, it is made so that there are no empty houses. Every empty house that goes on the market to avoid paying this tax surcharge is a success”.
