La Caixa funds cheap rents in Vera

LA CAIXA is offering 47 apartments in Vera, Almeria, as part of the program Alquiler Solidario.

The apartments will be made available to families with financial difficulties. The rent of each apartment will cost between €170 and €300 per month and includes IBI and any community charges. La Caixa will be subsidising half the rent, so the families will pay between €65 and €150 per month.

There are a number of requirements, including being of Spanish nationality or long-term resident, the household must have less than 2.5 times the minimum wage, which currently would be €18,600 per year. As a minimum, income must not be less than €5,000 per year because the rent still has to be paid, and the rent shouldn’t represent more than 30 per cent of the family unit’s income.

The homes will be awarded direct on a five-year lease. Those interested in applying can do so online at http://obrasocial-lacaixa.com/es/vivienda-asequible/alquiler-solidario where further information is also available in Spanish.

The housing programme was launched in 2012 to facilitate access to a home for those hardest hit by the current financial crisis. Four thousand families have already benefitted from the initiative and the organisation says that 2,000 of those were in 2014. Currently the La Caixa group has more than 13,000 social housing units across Spain.