2023-04-17 04:00:00
It is not news that our country is going through a complex macroeconomic situation, with increasing levels of poverty and indigence. In addition, there is inflation of more than 100% year-on-year, which is reaching historical limits, and a significant decline in people’s purchasing power.
Added to this, according to the latest data published by INDEC, almost one in three Argentines does not own their home and rents. This is not circumstantial: it is a structural trend in our country. We are facing a process of renting out cities, when the dream of owning one’s own home is becoming more and more a utopia.
Paying for rent in this weakened situation is a burden that almost three million homes must face every month. Given the lack of official census data at the national level, we will use information from tenant groups: most tenants allocate between a third and half of their income to pay rent, a percentage that has been increasing over the years.
The responsibility of responding to the housing problem falls mainly on the national State, due to its competences and collection capacities. The recent leaks that speak of a possible suspension by decree of the Rental Law are disastrous. Although it is clear that the current public order law has its flaws, such as the lack of incentives to expand the supply of real estate, it is also true that the government of Alberto Fernández has carried out poor implementation and little control.
dramatic uncertainty
It is an institutional shame that the discussion does not advance in the democratic space par eminence, the National Congress, which last year had already issued different opinions. Instead, we find out, through leaked operations, regarding the intention to suspend or repeal the law behind the backs of the people, which generates a state of dramatic and detrimental uncertainty for those who rent, are regarding to hire or terminate their lease. A government with counter-majority positions, improvised, generates cardboard institutions, the complete opposite of what it claims to represent.
The eventual suspension or repeal of the law would mean that the contracts would become governed by the Civil and Commercial Code and that the tenants would be greatly affected by the reduction in the duration of the contracts and the discretionary updating by the landlord. In other words, those affected in this context are once once more the tenants, who do what they can to make ends meet.
Access to housing is a constitutional right and it is the State that must guarantee the rights of citizens, prioritizing the needs of the weakest. If we really seek social justice, we cannot expect that from the market.
On the other hand, the State cannot ignore the lack of supply in the sector. Landlords prefer to either rent temporarily or not rent at all, which exacerbates the problem. The question that divides the waters is: is the low offer the product of the lack of incentives generated by the law or is it a problem of poor implementation? Real estate investment, historically, was it to obtain income from your rent or simply to “protect” the heritage once morest cycles of economic instability? Given the lack of official data, any answer is mere ideological speculation.
The situation in Cordoba
The housing situation in Córdoba is not too far from that of the rest of the country. However, there are certain elements that qualify it, mainly due to the accompaniment of the provincial government in terms of the acquisition of new homes, such as zero-rate mortgage loans, urbanization of popular neighborhoods and the Vida Digna and Vivienda Semilla programs. There is a lack of a specific public policy aimed at those who rent.
I have been working on the subject for years, defending those who are in a situation of greater vulnerability: tenants. That is why I presented a project so that the payment of broker fees should be made by the owner of the property and not by the tenants. I worked on a bill for the creation of a public registry of horizontal property consortium administrators and I presented another initiative to make mediations mandatory before proceeding with foreclosures or evictions. I was a promoter of the exemption from the Stamp Tax of the rental of real estate for home-room in our province. And I’m working on a project to facilitate young people’s access to rented housing.
In conclusion, we are in the midst of a very serious housing crisis in which, given the impossibility of a sector of the population to access their own home, the State has to generate policies for those who choose or are forced to go to housing in rent. However, the national State is doing the opposite: making the situation more precarious. The eventual implementation of the suspension or repeal of the Rental Law would leave tenants even more unprotected in the face of the voracity of the market. For this reason, from my place, I will continue working to guarantee access to the constitutional right to decent housing for all Cordovans.
* Provincial legislator of Hacemos por Córdoba for the Socialist Party
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