About 1,000 affordable rental homes in Málaga’s Teatinos district are awaiting final electricity connections before residents can receive their keys. The largely completed development lies west of the university campus and includes homes built by the city council and Swedish-owned developer Lagoom Living.
The project comprises 476 council-built flats and 530 developed by Lagoom on council-provided land. Most have been allocated by lottery, but residents cannot move in until the buildings are connected and essential systems are commissioned. A separate 70-flat council development is expected to be offered for allocation late this year or early next year.
The area had no electricity supply until 17 October. While the wider network connection is now in place, each block still needs its own connection process, including applications to Endesa, registration of communal areas, meter installation and commissioning of lifts. Sources cited by Sur say this can take two to three weeks per block if all requirements are met.
The delay follows a long pause in development. According to sources cited by Sur, work to prepare the site dates back more than 15 years. Endesa asked the council to upgrade electricity installations in the university campus area to increase capacity for current demand. The council’s upgrade works, costing €1,496,505, were completed in July, but the agreement to release the power needed for the homes was not finalised until early October after a review by Endesa.
The slow connection process has left successful applicants uncertain about when they can move. Some had received allocations as long as two years ago; one 69-flat block attracted more than 7,500 applications. A Lagoom tenant quoted by Sur said the family had been told to expect keys in October, then received an email giving an indicative window of 15 November to 1 December. The email, sent by Lagoom and its handover manager Sogeviso, said the delay was due to circumstances beyond their control and that dates depended on supply availability.
Another applicant told Sur that his family had moved in with his in-laws after leaving their rented flat in September, expecting to take possession of their new home in October. He said he was still waiting for the tenancy agreement and had struggled to get replies by phone. His reported monthly rent for the new flat is €865.
Lagoom expects to begin handing over keys in the second half of November, according to sources cited by Sur, while noting that the dates remain subject to electricity availability. The city council is also confident it can hand over the first 69 of its 476 homes in the area in the coming days. The remaining households will have to wait for their buildings to complete the connection and commissioning steps.