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Iván Kerr's plans for the Housing Secretary: “Return to mortgage loans”
December 8, 2023
The former Secretary of Housing of Mauricio Macri returns to public office with Javier Milei and affirms that his plan will aim to create mortgage loans, subsidies for demand, construction incentives and a Procrear with private investment
By Veronica Rub
Iván Kerr confirmed that he accepted the position of Secretary of Urban Development and Housing of the Nation
In the government of Mauricio Macri, Iván Kerr was an official from the first day to the last of the mandate. First, as undersecretary and then as secretary of Urban Development and Housing of the Nation from 2015 to 2019. And he had already worked on the same topic for eight previous years in the city government, with Macri first and with Horacio Rodríguez Larreta later.
Starting this December 10, but under the presidential mandate of Javier Milei, Kerr returns to his last public function: he will be the Secretary of Housing and Habitat of the new national government. This Secretariat will depend on the Ministry of Infrastructure headed by Guillermo Ferraro.
The day to day of the decision
A few days ago, the PRO member received the offer to occupy an undersecretary of Housing that would depend on the Ministry of Public Works. Although Javier Milei and his team try to maintain maximum secrecy, LA NACION was able to know that Kerr did not like this scheme: limiting housing policy to public works is not something that is aligned with his thinking and his professional career. in recent years, in which the former official had achieved an evolution under the concept that the housing solution is not only brick and the construction of social housing.PRO sources consulted by LA NACION said that “we had already taken that leap in quality, thinking about the concepts of development, habitat and housing as is thought in other countries in the world and having created that Secretariat in the government of Mauritius.”
Last Tuesday afternoon, when Kerr received the formal offer, his response was negative to the proposal to lead an undersecretary of Housing within the Ministry of Public Works.
What made you change your mind today and accept? That the proposal also changed. The Housing and Habitat Secretariat will be created within the Ministry of Infrastructure. Today Kerr gave his approval for the position.
In this way, the current Ministry of Territorial Development and Habitat “goes down one step” and becomes the Secretariat of Housing and Habitat.
The Playón Chacarita apartments, incorporated into the neighborhood
When consulted by LA NACIÓN, Iván Kerr confirmed the news and said that “this position and the issue of housing in Argentina is a great challenge ahead. We must change the heads of national and provincial officials, generate a cultural change to understand that "Housing is not only about building houses with State resources, equal and on the outskirts of cities, but also that the work can involve the private sector, with inclusion projects within existing cities and neighborhoods." The future secretary also declared that his plan is “to have mortgage loans again, to have subsidies for demand and incentives for construction”.
Regarding credits, he emphasized that " there is no credit in the world that works with two or three digits of inflation " and that to apply these measures " we must overcome the current, fix the macroeconomy to move towards a policy of subsidizing demand." As it exists in other countries, also in other countries the Procrear are not built by the State but by private ones. We must move from a construction State to encouraging private parties to get involved in the country's housing solution . We are going to work on all those instruments but they only work with the macro in order. We must once again generate the market, trust and stability.”
In relation to the rental law and Milei's statements about its repeal , Kerr said that “the rental issue must be added as a housing policy solution and will be part of a work plan that we have already begun to present to Federico Sturzenegger with countless projects that we have developed in recent times.”
In his personal life, returning to public service is also a challenge for Iván: “My wife finds it quite difficult that I have made this decision but she supports me. I will try to balance more between work and family life because in my previous administrations with City and Nation I worked 24/7. Now I don't want to miss my son's Saturday training sessions, I will have to miss some but I will try to keep going,” he said.
Who is Ivan Kerr?
Lawyer, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, with a Master's Degree in Business Law from the Universidad Austral, Kerr was general manager of the Housing Institute of the City of Buenos Aires between 2011-2014, and member of its Board of Directors in 2014-2015. He was also a member of the Pensar Foundation and elected deputy for the City of Buenos Aires in 2013 and 2015.During the Macri government he also served as president of Pro.cre.ar and was a member of the Executive Council of ACUMAR from 2016 to 2019.
Until the moment when Javier Milei again proposed the Housing Secretary, Iván served as coordinator of the Housing and Habitat Plan at the Pensar Foundation, since 2020; He was a regular trustee of Autopistas Urbanas SA (AUSA), since 2022; and independent consultant at Estudio Sambrizzi, since 2019.
Iván Kerr, who will once again be Secretary of Housing of the Nation, together with Jorge Macri, current Head of the Buenos Aires Government
His 7 most outstanding opinions in recent times
During the government of Alberto Fernández, Kerr was very critical of housing policy and the controversial rental law, recently modified last October . These are some of his sayings about it:- “The Rental Law passed in June 2020 did not work. That is a truism.”
- “The attempt to modify the law highlights the enormous distance between the current government and the needs of the people.”
- “Tenants, owners, auctioneers and all real estate development are hostage to the agenda of the head of Kirchnerism, a political space that lost the initiative a long time ago and that will remain in memory as one of the worst governments of the return of democracy.” . With a president who, far from governing to address people's problems, such as ensuring that the population can pay the rent for their homes, has prioritized an out-of-time progressive agenda, which leaves Argentina in economic uncertainty, very high inflation, without reserves and with a very uncertain future outlook.”
- “The drop in the supply of rental housing is not only a result of the bad rental law; The crisis is also due to the implementation of the DNU dictated by Alberto Fernández during the pandemic that prohibited evictions, imposed rent freezes and automatically extended contract terms. And, to this scenario were added fiscal and bureaucratic decisions that directly affected the normal functioning of the market”
- “Recipes are being used that no country uses anymore: social housing is built solely with State resources in neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities that do not generate true social integration.”
- “The trial balloons that hinder the system bring innumerable problems to the normal functioning of the markets. The Rental Law is a faithful reflection of this.”
- “The enormous structural housing deficit that our country suffers makes it impossible for it to be solved solely by building housing with public resources. We need to recover a robust and mature mortgage credit market. State resources must be used to subsidize the rate or capital of millions of mortgage loans that once again allow families to access their first home. That must be the way. Let's not put patches again. Let's enhance the credit tools that already exist and that can facilitate access to housing for millions of Argentines who need that dream to become a reality again in Argentina."
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