- This topic has 27 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 11 months ago by
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the owners sometimes do not have the right to sell.
And even if they do the purchase price is fixed by government.
This ‘official’ and compulsory price is lower than market so vendors will in many cases (well… we could say always) try to convince you to state in the deeds a lesser price (the official) than the actual price you will have to pay in order to avoid an inspection (this is what we call black money)
This is dangerous, you are risking a penalty fine and , in some regions, you may even loose the property.
Cesar
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I think you are missing something.
VPO are for those sections of Spanish society who struggle to afford their own housing, basically young Spanish adults trying to leave home, low wage or the unemployed.
In a way they are very unfair and arbitrary, because demand for them way exceeds supply, so allocation is done on a first-come-first-serve or lottery basis, which means that only the lucky few get to buy government subsidised housing, whilst the rest have to struggle on as normal.
Any northern-European (guiri) coming to live in Spain is automatically assumed to be rolling in cash and therefore not eligible to buy government-subsidised housing, though I don’t know exactly what the rules are. Suffice it to say you’ll never get near the top of any VPO waiting list any time soon.
They don’t build VPO in places like Marbella and Puerto Banús. Like everywhere, council estates are usually somewhere on the road to the airport, and downwind from posh areas.
Of course the VPO market has become corrupt, which was to be expected. For all I know you may be able to buy a VPO on the resale market, at a low ‘official’ price, but you’ll end up paying the full whack with the rest in cash, brown paper bag under the table.
Unless you are a young Spaniard struggling to leave the nest I’d forget about VPO.
Mark
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Thanks for that enlightenment Mark, thats very useful info for me. I knew that it was for strugglers with cash but i also maybe wrongly assumed that living in Spain with a residencia it might also apply to us “guiris” 😛 , although i like to think that I am not one of those as I actually prefer spanish culture to the british (flak jacket on)
I know someone who years ago bought a VPO and is a brit, got a very good deal as well so assumed it might be possible but Im struggling to get any real information on who it is offered to. i saw an article saying they might be building some in benalmadena but again no contact info 🙁 so its back to trawling the web to see if i can find out and where they might be. it would be great if it were possible though as trting to get onto the ladder here is just as bad as the uk at the mo!
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There are many kinds of protected housing in Spain. From the late VPOs (started in the Franco era) to the last VPP (officially protected housing), VLT (private promoted housing with officially fixed price), VIS (social insertion housing), etc…
Law varies a lot from region to region as now housing is an issue regulated by the different Autonomous Communities in Spain (Different ways of protection, conditions, warranties, etc…)
Any permanent and legal resident in Spain has the right to apply for a protected home, remember that if you are an UE citizen and a permanent resident you have just the same rights here as every Spaniard…
I disagree with Mark in the prototype of VPO applicant he describes. Last official reports show that the average would be a 35 to 45 year couple with one or two kids earning 3 to 4 times the Spanish minimum wage.
As for the locations you will find protected housing, things are starting to change. Authorities, at least here in Asturias, have finally realized that it’s not good for a rational city development to create ghettos so, in the new planning regulations, they are reserving land to promote this kind of housing in every new area to develop (12.500 new protected houses are planed for the next five years here, half of them only in Oviedo, the capital city, traditionally a expensive, and lets say snob area)
So… it depends of your economical status… and again… if you are looking for a resale VPO property be very, very, very careful
Cesar
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@Cesar wrote:
I disagree with Mark in the prototype of VPO applicant he describes. Last official reports show that the average would be a 35 to 45 year couple with one or two kids earning 3 to 4 times the Spanish minimum wage.Cesar
I’m sure you are right Cesar, but in which case VPO is terribly unfair. The whole point of it is to help the poorest sections of society afford property. If the average buyer is relatively affluent then it is just another middle class subsidy dressed up as helping the poor. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Mark
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@mark wrote:
but in which case VPO is terribly unfair. The whole point of it is to help the poorest sections of society afford property.
Not exactly… that would be the point of VIS ‘Viviendas de inserción Social’ and even most of the promotions under VPP ‘viviendas de protección pública’, but there is also and more everyday the figure of VLT ‘vivienda libre tasada’ (although the names vary from region to region and in some places they are inserted in the general VPP as a sub-category) which main purpose is to avoid or unless try to avoid speculation and this mad building price rise and to give lower and mid class families the opportunity to access a decent home.
There are many, many classes of VPP targeted to a very varied ranges of family economies. It’s obvious that wealthy people and even middle to upper classes cannot access this kind of homes, but in the other hand the idea that only the poorest section of society can get them is wrong.
As I’ve said the VPP holds a wide range of actions, from subsiding the whole operation to simply helping promoters with planning regulations that allow building in some places in exchange for a limited and fixed final price… In the middle you can find also public help in paying mortgage interests, providing the necessary endorsement or guaranty to access a rented house, providing public land in limited prices to help new promotions…
Cesar
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thank you for that cesar, all very interesting and at times over my head 😀
so as a last question, i have seen that some people on here would think me mad to look at it, and others have said that it is possible to buy as a “guiri” however in different parts of Spain i.e.not costa del sol as there dont seem to be any going on or if there are, not close to marbella, would i be right in this statement?
thank you all in advance , a great site for “real” info on property in spain 8)
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@Anonymous wrote:
others have said that it is possible to buy as a “guiri” however in different parts of Spain i.e.not costa del sol as there dont seem to be any going on or if there are, not close to marbella, would i be right in this statement?
Possible? yes, but you have to fulfil the same requirements every Spaniard has (you wont be discriminated for being a ‘guiri’) But bear in mind you have to be a resident and that in most places you will have to proof you have been living in the area you are requesting a VPO house for a while… this is not a ‘hey! let’s have a look in Andalucia and see if they have a VPO house for me in a place that suits me’ situation.
You will have to check in the local Town Hall or Autonomía for the promotions in process and the actual requirements
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Dear all
We have just been advised that the house we are going to buy is a “VPO” house. The vendors are now trying to back out of the sale due to the new law stating that it is impossible to proceed with the sale. For my peace of mind, under spanish law is it possble for them to keep our deposit deposit?
Any info is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Martina -
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Martina:
Is it the house in Andalucia? The new law don´t impede the sale, it just states ( in the general case) that it cannot be sold at a higher price than the offical one and that you have to communicate the sale to the Government as it has rights for preemption and buyout over the house.
Best regards,
Maria.
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Martina:
Is it the house in Andalucia? The new law don´t impede the sale, it just states ( in the general case) that it cannot be sold at a higher price than the offical one and that you have to communicate the sale to the Government as it has rights for preemption and buyout over the house.
Best regards,
Maria.
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I think this VPO thread is worthy of being kept alive.
Vivienda de Protección Oficial
Your house is officially protected ! That is – it’s officially recognised as being of particular interest to the government !
Well at least it is officially tied to whatever the goverment decide.
In Andalucia there are many flats and houses that come under this VPO designation. It is definitelt worth noting and bringing peoples attention to the fact that last year, the Government of Andalucia brought out a law ” LEY 13/2005″ . I have not studied this Law and the repercussions of it, but I do know that many properties falling within VPO can no longer be sold easily and many problems have arisen because of the PSOE change of Law.The properties that I have heard about are normal privately built properties which cannot be described as Social housing type units. Presumably the developer originally gained some advantage by building with a quota of ‘social housing’ involved. Planners would have been more positive perhaps but I don’t know the real reasons.
In stark terms, until this recent Law, the owners had the possibility of selling easily. Now the same property is much more difficult to sell and only a study of the impact of the law will reveal the difference !
Does anyone have any examples?
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katy- had hoped that some specific examples could be given concerning the sale of VPO houses bought prior to the implementation of the recent apparent change in either the law or the application of the law.
Maria says above that: The new law don´t impede the sale, it just states ( in the general case) that it cannot be sold at a higher price than the offical one and that you have to communicate the sale to the Government as it has rights for preemption and buyout over the house.
Whilst the law does not impede the sale it does apparently put limits on the sale price. So for example if you were a British couple who had purchased a nice apartment in a modern development and paid to the first owner a ‘market price’ that was similar to other ‘non VPO’ similar apartments in the very same block, and had taken out a large mortgage on it, but because of a change of circumstances need to sell………..because of the Law they now will find it difficult to get the price they paid for it. What’s more they may find that the mortgage is more than the ‘official price’ established by the Junta.
I was wondering if you or anybody else had come across specific cases where this change in the Law has had some impact on buying and selling VPO properties in Andalucia.
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New laws also coming into force which will ensure that all newly-urbanised land in Andalucia (possibly also Spain – lawyers please correct me) is subject to allocating 30% to VPO.
To give you an example on the Costa del Sol: in Malaga last month the local government announced that there would be a new VPO development of some 1000 units available. On the very first day it was launched there were people who had slept in the street overight in order to sign up for the “lottery” to get one. By the end of the day over 10,000 people had regsitered for these 1000 properties.
On the whole, if you’re an expat Brit looking for cheap housing in Spain then I would steer clear of VPOs – it does go against the grain somewhat. Imagine if you’d been on the waiting list for years for the right to buy a council house in a nice area in the UK and you found out that some Spaniard who’d only been in the country for a couple of months got your allocation instead. How would you feel?
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There is some info here
http://www.andaluciajunta.es/SP/AJ/CDA/ModulosComunes/MaquetasDePaginas/AJ-vMaqSeccionesPortavoz-00/0,20368,214288_6_0_08%257C07%257C2003,00.html
though as it’s from 2003 I don’t know how up to date it is in terms of the capped pricing structure. -
I think owning a VPO property can limit the resale possibilities as described in a personal message to me:
They were originally built for poorer people to buy and the Junta de Andalucia provided them with a cheap mortgage. Well, as time went by these people became better off financially and wanted a better home. They sold their houses, flats etc for what they thought they were worth. However, the Junta found that the majority were selling far above what the Junta thought they should be valued at. The Junta then brought in a new law this January (2006) stipulating that properties that were VPO’s had to be sold to first time buyers who earn less than EUROS 30,000 a year. Also both buyers and vendors had to get permission from the Junta to buy and sell. This can and does take approx 2 months. One major problem however, is whether the banks will give the buyer the mortgage. My first buyer withdrew because the interest rates went up and it left her with 370 euros a month to live on after the mortgage was taken out. The girl still had to pay 37.20 euros communidad fees, plus electrics gas etc. The second buyers could only borrow enough money from the bank to buy the flat and they obviously had not saved enough to cover agents fees and the Notaries fee. etcI believe that there are other rules governing the length of tome you are obliged to actually live in a VPO before you are allowed to sell it.
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This is a guide from the Ministry of Housing as to how one would go about de-qualifying a VPO property.
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If you look through the various Spanish for-sale-by-owner websites you will quickly find people advertising their VPO flats for sale with a note pointing out that the property is, in fact, a VPO and therefore most of the price will have to be paid in black money. These people are surprisingly open about their illegal scheming.
It is also fairly common for sellers to exchange contracts on their VPO’s without mentioning to the buyer that the property is a VPO. Of course, the buyer will quickly discover the truth when he attempts to raise a mortgage and the bank refuses.
Normally, you can discover if a property is a VPO by asking for a nota simple at the local property registry. However, beware – because VPO’s come in many shapes and flavours and it dangerous to generalise about the resale conditions.
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I think that whilst buyers may well be aware of what they are buying, however the Law or the implementation of the Law regarding VPO has changed in Andalucia in 2006 . I think that for someone who can live in the property for many years it may not make much difference. However in Andalucia, the Junta have imposed restrictions about selling that could affect people who are forced to move. For example because of divorce or change of job? Much of the concern has been over the way the Junta has implemented the Law and how it has done this. This has raised many issues. Especially for those who did not know about the state of affairs.
One vocal website was active : http://vpoandalucia.org/web/
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