Construction of 775 public houses at La Hoya in Torrevieja is still no closer to being built

Susana Camarero, Vice President of the Generalitat, and Eduardo Dolón, Mayor of Torrevieja, announced in mid-July the awarding of the contract for the construction of 811 protected homes in the city, of which 775 will be built on three plots of land in the La Hoya plan, through the system of sale in exchange for future work: the companies “pay” for the land by giving the municipality ownership of a portion of the homes. Given the administrative complexity of the tender, it was settled very swiftly.

The Generalitat and Torrevieja City Council want it to be the most tangible example of the Vive Plan, which was established by the Generalitat’s President, Carlos Mazón, through the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (EVHa), to solve the issue of housing availability.

The phases

The announcement left the details of the execution for another time. The fact that the administration met the deadlines in this case may, paradoxically, create further problems. The public site given by the City Council to develop the residences is part of the La Hoya partial plan, a private residential project spanning 1.8 million square meters with a capacity of up to 7,400 homes and four construction phases. The joint company in charge of the development project has recently completed the first phase of the project, which began in September 2023 and cost 32 million euros to build.

Delay

However, the City Council is ceding 36,000 square meters in Phase 2. This location lies between the Jardín del Mar residential complex and the new Avenida José Carreras. The land consists primarily of debris and untamed plants. It is underdeveloped. It lacks urban land status. It necessitates roads, a supply of drinking water and electricity with adequate flow and power for the proposed construction, and wastewater evacuation to the treatment plant, among other fundamental services. The entire plan’s creator must now address this second phase, which has an execution duration of 18 months. It might begin in October of next year. The UTE (United States Joint Venture) has an 8.4 million euro investment that it must carry out. The first phase saw the majority of the investment, with a focus on meeting its own development needs.

It can be done

According to PP government sources, the property set aside for protected housing will not have legal status as a building plot until construction begins.

They point out that the five-story blocks can be built at the same time as the land is developed, which is legal and very common in Alicante’s construction sector: urbanisation works are carried out concurrently with housing construction to meet demand deadlines more efficiently. They also cite the first phase of the plan, completed in August, as an example, in which the City Council granted major construction permits for more than one hundred residential tourist homes, which already have new residents, as well as TM’s new headquarters, while urbanisation work was underway.

Aedas Homes, the business allocated one of the three lots in the Hoya plan for 195 homes, has withdrew from the project, forcing the City Council to offer a new bidder for the valuable fifth floor without approval. The City Council regards this withdrawal as an administrative matter with no further consequence and states that the contract will be given to the next construction company that submits an offer. However, when Aedas Homes was presented as the successful bidder, it filed a written statement warning that the plan adjustment, which would allow the project to be expanded to five stories instead of four, needed to be resolved, making the project more profitable. It unsuccessfully sought the suspension of the award. The corporation faces a €109,000 penalty for withdrawing.

The corporation questioned why, after months of preparation, the amendment had not been finalised or passed by the municipal plenary session, resulting in legal uncertainty. The City Council responded by stating that this occurrence would merely affect the project’s execution, which it concedes has not yet occurred.

On the other side, Livanto, the firm that was granted lot 3 for 360 dwellings, has delayed registering the guarantee. Abala (Grupo Hozono), one of the major municipal civil works suppliers, won the offer for the final lot in La Hoya. Finally, Urdecón, another municipal supplier, has been given the final project of thirty dwellings in La Manguilla, near La Mata Beach.

Since July

For the time being, it has been two and a half months since the grant was announced, but the same municipal sources say that there will be good news shortly about the progress of the Vive en Torrevieja plan.

The high capacity for protected housing available in this plan, which borders the Las Lagunas Natural Park, is consistent with the urban development plan itself, which has been under construction since September 2023 and is one of the largest in the Valencian Community.

The 2015-2019 coalition administration required that the site be set aside for subsidised housing, as well as three educational plots for future educational centre building.

The project’s processing began in the late 1990s on rural terrain. It was approved in 2009, when the housing crisis made it unnecessary to accelerate. The government later implemented compensating measures owing to the environmental harm. In fact, the housing will fill the undeveloped corridor that connects the two lagoons.

Sector figures

Total area of the Sector: 1,800,000 square meters
Green areas 450,000 square meters
Public Facilities 111,000 square meters
Road Network 357,000 square meters
Maximum number of homes: 7,490 homes, of which 25% are public housing
Commercial Area: 103,000 square meters (parallel to the CV-95 access to Torrevieja)
Urbanization Budget €57,000,000 (VAT included)
25 years of processing