The figure of the PRE seeks to unblock urban and developable land and reduce deadlines, to achieve 10,000 affordable homes in Palma.
The Decree-Law includes an express procedure to build public housing and the requirement of 5 years of residence in each municipality to qualify for VPP and VPL.
The Consell de Govern has approved the Decree-Law on urgent actions aimed at obtaining land through strategic residential projects (PRE) in the municipality of Palma, a new figure created to unblock and streamline urban and developable land and optimise the use of this land in the municipality of Palma, to create more affordable housing. It also incorporates other measures to facilitate the creation of public housing and to increase the supply of affordable housing for residents in the municipalities of the Balearic Islands.
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The Government creates strategic residential projects in Palma and takes measures to generate more affordable housing
This Decree-Law regulates the creation of strategic residential projects (PRE) in the municipality of Palma, an urgent and extraordinary measure to increase the supply of land for housing, to unblock and streamline urban and developable land already provided for in the General Plan of Palma of 2023, with a very significant reduction in processing times (from the current 10 years to an estimated period of between 18 and 24 months) and to take advantage of and optimise the use of this land.
With its deployment, it is estimated that the construction of more than 10,000 affordable homes can be facilitated in the municipality of Palma, under some kind of protection regime, both public protection housing (VPP) and limited price housing (VPL), both aimed at resident citizens. The approximate potential of the PREs is the creation of more than 20,000 homes, and one of the conditions of this new figure is that 50% must be reserved for homes subject to a protection regime (VPP or VPL).
In addition, 15% of the land use must be ceded to Palma City Council to build public housing, and the building capacities and densities on urban land and developable land are increased – a maximum density of 225 inhabitants per hectare is established – so that more housing can be built without affecting the new territory. Thus, the creation of the PREs does not mean consuming more territory than is already foreseen in Palma’s municipal planning.
The strategic residential projects will be carried out on urban land pending transformation (such as urban renewal areas, integral rehabilitation areas or the execution units delimited in the General Plan of Palma or in the Integral Reconversion Plan of Playa de Palma) and on developable land.
Among other general conditions, it is also established that they must have a minimum of 100 homes and may be of public or private initiative, and they will entail a reduction in timeframes, as they will benefit from urgent and preferential processing of licences and a unified procedure.
n a single procedure, it will be possible to process the development plan, the parcelling project and the urbanisation project, the three phases of the ERP, so that the processing times will be significantly reduced: until now, in general terms, it took more than 10 years, and with this new figure, it is estimated to take between 18 and 24 months, between a year and a half and two years.
The impact of the PREs is estimated at the construction of more than 20,000 homes in total (between 15,000 and 18,000 on developable land and some 5,000 on urban land pending transformation), of which at least half, in the application of the 50% reserve, more than 10,000, will be destined for affordable housing in the municipality of Palma.
For the Balearic Islands as a whole, the Decree-Law also incorporates new measures aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing for residents in all the municipalities of the archipelago. Thus, it establishes the requirement of five years’ residence in the municipality in which the housing development subject to a protection regime (VPP and VPL) is located; and includes new measures to speed up public housing development and significantly reduce the current urban development processing times.
In this sense, an express procedure is incorporated to develop public housing developments on any type of land, except protected rural land, through a declaration of autonomous interest by the Consell de Govern with a prior report from the town council and subsequent authorisation of the project by the Consell de Govern, so that the start-up of development can be considerably reduced.
It also introduces changes in relation to limited-price housing, a figure created in Law 3/2024 on urgent housing measures, with the aim of guaranteeing that 30% of the limited-price housing in development is reserved for people under the age of 35, and it is established that the owners or promoters of 10 or more VPLs will have to guarantee this reserve for young people for a period of two years from the registration of the new construction.
The Decree-Law also regulates measures to take advantage of and develop the pending areas of the Strategic Land Reserves (RES), a figure created in Law 5/2008 on urgent actions aimed at obtaining land for public housing. In this case, the density in the RES is increased in order to be able to build more housing without increasing the surface area, and the emergency procedure is established for municipal planning licences relating to building projects derived from the RES.