On Thursday, Unicaja signed a collaboration agreement with the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha for the development of the ‘Youth Housing Financing Assistance Programme’. In this way, alongside seven other financial institutions, it has committed to collaborating on this initiative launched by the Regional Government to help young people buy their first home.
Under this programme, young people in the region will be able to receive up to 100% of a mortgage for their main residence, as the Regional Government will guarantee the portion—around 20%—not covered by the banks and will also subsidise an amount equivalent to the interest on that portion.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, alongside the regional minister for Finance, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, and the regional minister for Development, Nacho Hernando Serrano, presided over the event, at which eight financial institutions signed up to the protocol. Representing Unicaja were the regional manager for Castilla-La Mancha, Almudena Noheda, and the head of Corporate Banking for Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura, Ignacio González Ascarza.
The regional minister for Finance, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, highlighted the banks’ commitment to “the implementation of the housing strategy being pursued by the regional government”. By signing this protocol, these institutions have expressed “their willingness to participate in the public guarantee scheme provided by the Regional Government, designed to facilitate access to mortgage financing for young people wishing to purchase their first main residence”.
For his part, the regional minister for Development, Nacho Hernando, emphasised that “demand must be managed, and the main problem for young people is saving up the costs involved in entering the property market; this is made easier by guaranteeing the 20% that the bank does not lend, if interest rates are 0%, and if the taxes associated with buying a home are reduced”.
For her part, Almudena Noheda highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration in offering new opportunities to our young people in such an important decision as the purchase of their first home. In this regard, she emphasised “Unicaja’s commitment to the people of Castilla-La Mancha, supporting all initiatives that serve to improve people’s quality of life”.
The collaboration agreement signed is part of the framework of the 2026-2030 Housing Action Agenda, recently presented by the regional government.
Threefold objective and specific agreements with each organisation
The regional minister for Finance, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, focused on the main thrust of the agreement that has been signed, which forms part of the Youth Housing Financing Assistance Programme. The regional government has set out a threefold objective for this programme: firstly, to reduce the initial costs involved in buying a home; secondly, to encourage young people to save so that they can finance these initial costs; and finally, to provide zero-cost financing for what the banks do not cover.
Ruiz Molina explained that the purpose of this agreement is to enable the regional government to guarantee 20% of those mortgages that financial institutions cannot underwrite due to credit risk criteria, thereby enabling young people to access 100% financing for the purchase of their first main residence.
Thus, following today’s signing and once the relevant regulatory framework—which legally and administratively governs the granting of these guarantees—has been approved, the regional minister indicated that the regional government will enter into specific agreements with each financial institution to apply this measure to mortgages granted to young people under the age of 36.
To complement this measure, and as part of the aforementioned programme, the minister mentioned a third initiative by Emiliano García-Page’s government, which consists of “covering the financial cost of the interest generated by that 20% of the guaranteed mortgage”, so that beneficiaries can access that portion of the financing at no cost.
This is one of the “icing on the cake” of the 2026–2030 Housing Action Agenda, presented some 20 days ago by president García-Page and the regional minister for Development, Nacho Hernando, and which will mobilise €500 million through 32 measures aimed at increasing the housing supply and improving access conditions, particularly for those under 36.
