{"text":[[{"start":6.034,"text":"Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing housing reforms including a ban on purchases by “vulture funds” after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid heightened anger over a Spanish property crisis."}],[{"start":21.32,"text":"Sánchez’s leftwing government on Tuesday approved a freeze on evictions and other measures in response to surging rental costs and house prices, which have become a top concern of voters in Spain and across Europe."}],[{"start":31.6,"text":"But there is no guarantee that Spain’s fractious parliament will support the proposed measures in a vote on Friday, because some parties that occasionally back the prime minister voiced misgivings about parts not directly related to evictions."}],[{"start":44.042,"text":"Isabel Rodríguez, housing minister, said the package would “put a stop to purchases by vulture funds in order to halt speculative buying”, as she criticised the company landlord that drove 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid flat last week."}],[{"start":59.526,"text":"A court order forced Abascal out of the home she had lived in for 71 years after her landlord introduced a rent increase she could not afford when a longstanding rent cap expired. Hundreds of protesters have set up a camp in central Madrid to support her."}],[{"start":74.13,"text":"The owner of Abascal’s apartment, a small Spanish company called Urbagestión, has rejected being described as a “vulture fund” — a disparaging term in Spain that elsewhere refers to investors buying distressed businesses."}],[{"start":88.88,"text":"Asked how the housing legislation would define vulture funds, Rodríguez said its full text would be available “soon” and added: “Urbagestión, strictly speaking, may not be a fund, but it is a vulture small business, and very predatory.”"}],[{"start":104.94,"text":"Shortly afterwards, a lawyer for Abascal, who has been in hospital since her eviction, said she had accepted an offer from Urbagestión that would allow her to move back into the apartment."}],[{"start":114.613,"text":"The offer, which was brokered by Madrid city council, would let Abascal pay about €500 per month for the flat in one of central Madrid’s most expensive neighbourhoods — close to what she paid before and far below market rates."}],[{"start":127.818,"text":"As part of its reforms, Sánchez’s minority coalition government is seeking to impose a freeze on evictions until 2030 and introduce regulations to stamp out fraud related to short-term rentals and individual room rentals. It also wants to increase the sales tax on tourist apartments while granting tax breaks to other landlords and tenants."}],[{"start":148.46,"text":"But one Catalan separatist party whose support Sánchez would need to pass the legislation, Junts per Catalunya, expressed concern that the ban could unfairly snare small landlords looking to invest their personal savings."}],[{"start":159.8,"text":"Sánchez has not been able to get a budget through parliament since the end of 2022."}],[{"start":164.538,"text":"The conservative opposition People’s Party has criticised the premier for not doing more on housing during his eight years in power, when growth in demand has far outstripped supply due to an open-door immigration policy and bureaucratic bottlenecks in construction."}],[{"start":180.04,"text":"Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP leader, said the housing reforms “are not going to produce results”, adding: “Nobody can solve a problem they have created over eight years with [legislation] whose sole purpose is to prolong a barren parliamentary term.”"}],[{"start":196.76,"text":"Between 2021 and 2025, Spain built 750,000 fewer houses than its growing population needed, equivalent to 3.7 per cent of all the households in the country last year, according to a Bank of Spain study."}],[{"start":208.96,"text":"Sánchez’s government noted that it passed a sweeping housing law in 2023 that included new rent controls and blames PP-led regional governments for failing to implement them."}],[{"start":219.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790736356_4622.mp3"}