National Assembly approves bill of social interest housing

The National Assembly, this January 6, approved in the second and final debate the draft Organic Law on Social Interest Housing, which establishes the regime for the rectory, planning, regulation, control and production of safe and healthy homes in the equator.

This regulation grants decentralized autonomous governments the legal tools to take advantage of the management of housing for popular sectors.

‘There are 510,000 properties in urbanized areas of 80 municipalities in Ecuador without construction, in some of them vertical projects can be made with houses of social interest,’ says the Minister of Housing

Twenty-four assembly members participated in the debate and made various observations on the proposed text, however, the project went to a direct vote and did not return to the Autonomous Governments commission to collect texts related to the titling of land by municipalities and metropolitan districts. This project was approved with 131 votes.

The new regulations, which will be brought to the attention of the Executive, create the modality of social leasing with a purchase option that will be intended for people who, due to their economic income, are not considered creditworthy.

In this type of contract, the beneficiary does not acquire the property immediately, but once the specified term has been fulfilled and all the monthly payments have been entered, he has the right to demand that the respective sale contract be signed.

To reinforce responsibility, a sanctioning regime is established for beneficiaries and entities involved, public and private, in low-income housing projects, which have breached their obligations or incurred in non-compliance and negligence in the development of housing projects.

In the event that the tenant does not exercise the purchase option or does not comply with the conditions, he must proceed to return the leased property and this fact under no circumstances leads to the return of money in favor of the tenant, since the payments made in the framework of the contract constitute the rental fee fixed between the parties.

Programs and grants

The social interest housing programs, as approved, will be implemented in urban and rural land equipped with infrastructure for basic services and will promote the socio-spatial integration of the population by locating, preferably, in consolidated areas of urban and rural areas. with the exception of soils destined for agricultural or extractive use.

The land bank for social housing is created, as the governing body for habitat and housing, to which all properties, land and state properties in disuse or underutilized, throughout the national territory and that comply with the urbanization conditions will be assigned. required or potentially developable, in accordance with the Law. All properties, lands and properties of the Decentralized Autonomous Regime are exempted from this assignment, which may be transferred to the governing body of habitat and housing, voluntarily.

A subsidy is established for low-income housing, which will consist of a total or partial state contribution in money or in kind, granted to the beneficiary, in order to acquire a new or used house or land destined for self-construction of living place.

In the debate, Assemblyman Salvador Quishpe, from the Pachakutik caucus, focused on land titling, and proposed a transitory provision so that within a year, in coordination between the Ministry of Housing and in some cases the Ministry of Agriculture and the municipalities, proceed to legalize the lands in favor of those who live for years and do not have the title.

Sanctions are included against the authorities that do not expedite basic services for people living in suburban sectors.

Juan Fernando Flores, from the official CREO movement, observed the need to eliminate from the project the creation of an advisory council for social housing, to avoid duplication of institutions when a similar body already contemplates the Law of the Council of Citizen Participation.

Marlon Cadena, from the ID, regretted that in the country many properties do not have title to their properties, for which he insisted on approving the project that provides that within the powers of autonomous decentralized municipal and metropolitan governments they issue the necessary regulations that expedite the procedures and deadlines for the regularization of property rights.

The observations that were not collected after the second debate will be incorporated once the partial veto of the project is presented, said the president of the table of autonomous governments, Celestino Chumpi (PK). (I)