The Mexico City (CDMX) faces a growing housing pressure. Price increase, resident displacement and real estate speculation have generated a phenomenon that can no longer be ignored: Gentrification. Faced with this, The capital government has decided to take a more active role and bet on public investment in Social Housingthe regulation of income and a new urban development model.
In an interview, César Cravioto, secretary of Government of Mexico City, indicated that the administration of Clara Brugada in the capital of the country is not against private investment in the city; However, he stressed that there must be balance for communities and especially have the clear rules.
In that context, the official defended the strategy contained in the 14 points of Bando 1, which contains issues such as the Income regulationOmbudsman for tenants and support for housing building. The official stressed that the free market, by itself, has generated distortions that currently affect the majority of the population of the capital.
– How does the Government of Mexico City take the issue of gentrification and what is its perspective in this regard?
Various policies have been made, but I think the most important policy is that there are affordable housing And for that from the first budget of the Clara Brugada government, it has already been raised and operated. There is a very clear message: allocate resources as never before to be built affordable housing. For this year, there are 9,000 million pesos, when last year it did not reach 5,000 million pesos. It is a very clear message: let’s build Social Housing In Mexico City.
We do not want people to be expelled from their colonies, from their neighborhoods, for economic reasons. What we want is for people to root, where their grandparents, their parents or themselves, can continue to live the new generations.
– What is the objective of BAndo 1?
It is a strategy with 14 points to deal with this phenomenon (of the Gentrification). It was announced after meetings with specialists and after the first march against the Gentrification.
It is a very solid approach at the table that the Government of the City laid and the whole month of August will be carried out so that all the legislative changes that are required are presented in the next period of ordinary sessions and the Ministry of Territorial Planning will be progressing in the work approach in these 10 areas of real estate tension.
– When the theme of side 1 was presented, versions arose regarding rent, where it was assured that it would return to the issue of frozen income. How far is the government willing to negotiate with the private initiative to have greater flexibility and to win?
I say it categorically: we will not return to the frozen income In Mexico City. The proposal does not go there. It is already in the Civil Code that a rent It cannot rise more than inflation rises in n year, that is important that people know it because it is part of the right of a tenant.
But we will monitor that the current law, that is, the current Civil Code, all respect it. In real estate tension areas there will be a very deep review by the Ministry of Territorial Planning to define specific policies.
– One of the problems in Mexico City, is that there is no land available for the construction of housing. Where is it expected to develop safe housing?
Part of what has to be reviewed, for example, is that there is no idle land, because there is still a lot of idle land. I am not talking about the green areas, but I am talking about the central areas of the city. There are still dwelling (idle), for example, of the people who live, who had their job, could build, but today it no longer gives it to maintain it. There, agreements with these people will be sought to be integrated into a project, where they can live more families.
– The processing is a constant complaint of developers to expand the housing offer in Mexico City. How will this issue work?
Recently, we have announced an approach to expedite the construction procedures of dwellingespecially of social, but also of the developments that already have a preapprobation of water, roads, which do not affect the environment, because to accelerate them. Obviously more Housing offerprices are balanced.
– On the voices that claim that with all the actions of the capital government private property is attacked, what would it answer?
We are not attacking any private rights, we are just defending private law so that people can live where it always grew. If we leave everything to the market, then we would say, “Ah, well, the one who can live there, then live and cannot, then scratch with its own nails.”
The head of government already said it: the city should not be a merchandise ”, it must be habitable for all and it should not be an issue of how many resources you have to have the possibility of living in the city, that is, to leave everything to the free market is clear that it does not work, because we are seeing the great distortions that have been, the great pressures that exist in this regard.
For us, government, It is welcome to build to resent, so that the properties are soldbut not for those who raise a building just to speculate, because that to whom it benefits is only those who invested in that building and are not helping a city, a community.
It seeks to prioritize collective interest before the ambition of a few. So, we are not going to affect private property, but we are going to put mechanisms that are more just for everyone.
