It was a measure announced with great fanfare. It was to serve to put around 20,000 unused houses on the rental market. And it would mean that the Community of Madrid would stop earning 20 million euros each year, by rewarding the owners of those empty homes with a personal income tax deduction of 1,000 euros per head, as long as their landlords signed contracts of at least three years. But the data pales in comparison to the announcement. During the first year of application of this bonus in the income tax return (about 2024), only 1,588 taxpayers requested the deduction, which is equivalent at most to a similar number of homes added to the market, according to official data from the Ministry of Finance. Consequently, the collection loss was reduced to 1,210,669 euros. 93.9% less than expected in a region that in 2021 (latest data published), had 187,586 empty homes, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). That is why the left-wing opposition received with skepticism the announcements launched last week by President Isabel Díaz Ayuso regarding housing during the debate on the state of the region.
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