To begin by abandoning the ambiguity which the title of these paragraphs could give rise to, I should say that the problem of housing is a topic of general interest, not as much because of the importance and necessity of social housing, but because of the relevance of social interest for housing of all types.

It is not necessary to enlarge upon reasoning to highlight the statement that was made in number 10 of the magazine Economists (a monographic on housing), according to which the critical situation of the Spanish real estate market, characterized by an apparent deficit of housing, has begun to be a high priority in the concerns of the citizens, particularly of the younger strata. Through them, and through family interdependences, that restlessness expands to the whole community, its possible solution constituting an objective of clear general interest.

In those economies that have solved their basic nutritious necessities, housing is constituted as the consumer good where its importance reaches far beyond its direct participation in productive activity, and its social relevance cannot be measured exclusively in monetary-quantitative terms through exchange values of those goods, but rather it is necessary to highlight the high value in use that the use of habitual housing incorporates.

Another aspect to emphasise is the real retrogression that the housing situation in Spain has carried with it over the last few years. The rise in credit prices due to high interest rates was difficult to reduce while deficit and public indebtedness persisted, together with the speculative movements of the real estate sector. This led to a situation where, due to falling marginal utility income, the low, medium low and also the medium incomes, had to pay high quantities in the concept of housing that rebounded negatively on their well-being, and positively on the medium high and high incomes that received those high quantities due to speculation, or on those who could invest their savings in public Debt without risk and with high interest rates.

Such a situation is reinforced in Spain by the strong social roots of owned housing. The greater the importance of owned housing, the greater the necessity for external financing for the procurers due to the close relationship existing between the market price of a home and the available family income. In this respect it is significant that the debt of Spanish families represents more than half of their financial assets, while in other developed countries, this percentage is under 40%, according to a study published in the magazine" Equality" that the "Fundación Argentaria" publishes. As the patrimony of the studied families is greater, financial assets gain relative weight in their "portfolios", especially company stocks, to the detriment of deposits. These data emphasise the importance of families with a smaller patrimony who have a greater debt, measured as a percentage over their assets. All this gives rise to the necessity of highlighting the convenience of an agile and transparent owned and especially rented-housing market that presses the drop in price and that at the same time makes the sectoral and geographical mobility of the human factor more flexible.

The advance of the electoral convocation has left three important bills related with this topic paralysed: the approval of the Bill of Urban Leases, that of Patronage and the Bill of Foundations. The repeated Socialist promises of finding a solution for those laws in this legislature have failed again. It is important to insist, in any case and facing the future, on the postulate according to which the transparency of the real estate markets can be supplemented by the participation of the foundations and the help of patronage. When trying to reconcile housing and foundations we are moving within the highest legal range: that of the Constitution. If on one hand the right to found is recognized in article 34, it is also proposed in the Constitution that the State provides decent housing for all Spaniards. It is not preposterous to think that the attainment of decent housing for all Spaniards occurs with the development and strengthening of the right to found oriented to the problem of housing. I do not believe concrete proposals on this topic are incorporated into the electoral programmes in spite of their social importance, but anyway these will have to be some of the top priorities of the future government of Spain.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Mediterranean, Sunday April 11th 1993