Spain to help to combat mortgage holders (AFP)

MADRID (AFP) - the Spain Government has approved measures Friday to help the soaring number of owners, many unemployed, who cannot pay their mortgages.

The Government has, since mid-May with demonstrations across the country of "indignant" demonstrators who won public support by denouncing the State of the economy and corruption.

Among their demands are changes to the laws of strict mortgage foreclosure on Spain.

Under Spanish law, banks have the right to homes for sale by auction in a foreclosure. If no buyers do appear, as is often the case, the Bank may take possession of the House for 50% of its value.

Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said that this percentage would be raised to 60 percent, leaving an offender with a debt of more small to repay.

"No one shall be able to take the power of the House of a person of less than 60% of its value," he told a press conference after a cabinet meeting weekly where the measure was approved.

The Government will also raise the amount of the monthly income of a borrower which may not be seized by a bank default on a loan of House at 961 euros ($1.390) 641 euros, said Rubalcaba.

If the latter has dependants, another 30 percent by Member of the family remain untouchable.

"These are measures aimed essentially to protect those who cannot continue to pay their mortgages," said Rubalcaba.

The number of properties seized in Spain rose ten-fold over the last three years, according to Idealista.com, the largest website in the country.

In the first quarter of the year there were about 22 000 seizures in Spain, according to government statistics. There are 93 000 throughout the last year.

Unemployment rate of the Spain, shot up to 21.29% in the first quarter, the highest in the industrialized countries, following the collapse of a bubble of property in 2008.

The "outrage" would like the Government to amend the legislation to allow homeowners to turn their debt in full by handing over the keys for their properties as in many other countries.

In recent weeks demonstrators blocked successfully the eviction of dozens of owners by preventing the court officials to enter homes to serve notice of expulsion.

A poll published Sunday in the daily newspaper El Pais has 86% of Spaniards back the proposal that banks be forced to write a mortgage debt if the owner gives the lender their home.