A municipality in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara has signed an agreement with the federal government to salvage 68,000 abandoned homes.

Authorities in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, reached the deal with the National Workers Housing Fund (Infonavit) and the Secretariat of Urban Development and Urban Planning.

Authorities plan to sell the finished homes either to individual buyers or in bulk to companies that would then seek buyers for the properties.

Mayor Salvador Zamora told the newspaper Milenio that if all 68,000 homes are occupied, 100 million pesos (US$5.3 million) in property taxes will flow into the municipal coffers each year. The money would help pay for basic services that the city government provides to residential estates that lack water and other essentials.

The first stage of the rehabilitation project will focus on the incomplete Lomas del Mirador housing estate, which was abandoned more than a decade ago.

Milenio reported that authorities in Tlajomulco are also seeking an agreement with Infonavit in order to secure a loan to purchase 1,000 of the rehabilitated homes to be used as public housing.

The municipality has received 500 requests for such housing in recent months but the applicants remain on a waiting list because there are no properties available.

Source: Milenio (sp)