In recent weeks, an intense and passionate debate has opened up about our mortgage market. The passionate nature of this debate can be justified because many citizens have suffered from the serious housing crisis triggered by an economic crisis that left five million people unemployed. Also because the mortgage market responds to a basic need of citizens.
In our country, this need has been met in a fairly satisfactory manner and has been addressed by the private sector. Our mortgage system has provided the necessary financing for approximately 80% of families to purchase their homes. This figure demonstrates that our public policy on access to housing—whether ownership or rental—has been, unlike what has occurred in other countries, limited in relative terms; most of the effort has fallen on the private sector.
One can debate whether the rental or ownership regime is better or worse, or even criticize the lack of a broader and more generous social housing system, but no one can blame those supposed weaknesses on the very entity that has remedied and mitigated them with great effectiveness: providing solutions to many families who, otherwise, would have had no alternative for accessing housing.
José María Roldán, Chairman of the Spanish Banking Association
