Residential buildings in Barcelona, last week. Albert Garcia
The new Barcelona City Council government, headed by Mayor Jaume Collboni (PSC), will deal from September with the reform of the city regulations, pushed by his predecessor Ada Colau, which obliges developers to allocate 30% of the floors of buildings with more than 600 square meters to social housing (whether new construction or major renovations). Both real estate sources and the opposition in the city council assume that this is a matter of course. And it matches the rhythm and intensity with which Collboni speaks about the need to reform a rule that he voted for when it was passed in 2018, but which he says is not working because it achieves “very modest results”, although he recalled that this was a compromise choice. The APCE sponsoring association assures that since its entry into force hardly any licenses have been issued for 53 social housing units, while the city government announced before the elections of about 120 in progress or under construction (plus 500 lost due to the moratorium on the application of the Rule). The mayor also notes he may have political support, recalling that community groups like Junts have bet their program will review 30%. The PP wanted to repeal the rule.
Since the pre-campaign, the incumbent mayor has argued: “If the regulation aims to increase the supply of affordable rental housing, but it doesn’t work and is holding back investment in housing, it needs to be changed.” His recipe is to get developers committed to ‘monetize’ build social housing: Instead of building 30% of it in the same building where they build housing for the open market, they should donate money to the city council to do so. He assures that Paris or New York did it. The Commons, Collboni’s partner in the previous term, raise their hands to their heads: “30% cannot be diluted, it is effective and useful to build affordable housing in every neighborhood of the city.” “The idea of monetizing the City Council and letting developers pay for construction belies the philosophy of making the private sector partly responsible,” laments Janet Sanz, who was responsible for city planning in the past term. The first eight apartments, resulting from the 30% stake acquired by the City Council, were located in the Congrés area of the Sant Andreu district. “Collboni has to decide whether he is the mayor of the people who need housing or of the interest groups,” he adds, assuring that developers would benefit doubly from making the rule more flexible, because exactly “by 30% of the price. “The country has become cheaper”.
More information
The monetization formula, industry sources explain, stems from discussions between the Colleges of Architects, Surveyors, APCE and the Hàbitat 3 Foundation, which manages social housing for businesses. In fact, it has recently been hinted at by both the Dean of Architects, Guim Costa, and the Dean of Volume Surveyors, Celestí Ventura. The president of the employers’ association APCE, Xavier Vilajoana, sets out the demands of his sector: “Remove 30% for large renovations, increase the minimum area so that it applies from 600 to 2,400 square meters and reduce the cost of building them.” Buying apartments taking into account the market of each district of the city and transferring them to the City Council in exchange for not having them built in the same building.” Speaking on behalf of COAPI, Carles Sala, COAPI’s legal director and spokesman, “sees it as extremely necessary , to remove 30% on renovation and in the context of the need to make buildings more sustainable, not to pursue builders, but to promote “comprehensive measures to tackle climate change”. As for promotion, Sala reiterates that “public data points to an absolute failure,” adding that “the problem isn’t housing costs, it’s wages.”
In the case of renovations, the former councilor opened three lawsuits that could result in millions in fines for reform advocates in the Eixample who he accuses of not having reserved 30% of floors for subsidized housing, cutting license applications to cover up the fact that sweeping reforms are involved went.
The bodies, which endorsed 30%, a formula resulting from the tightening of the Catalan law on housing rights passed by the progressive tripartite party in 2007, were very critical of the PSC’s position on making the regime more flexible . When the PSC, still in the city government, put a proposal to the vote (in March 2023), it accused the Socialists of “supporting the interests of the promoters” and not with the bodies (PAH, Union of Tenants and Observatori DESC) . They understand that if the promoters could avoid mixing public and private housing, “it would mean further segregating citizens according to their income, since the few plots or buildings available are in the most distant neighborhoods.” The companies also recall that in 2018 the PSC “conditional its positive vote on not suspending the issuance of licenses pending their entry into force, which is why many promotions were exempt from the tax.” “Collboni’s proposal is unacceptable, ineffective and classic,” they conclude.
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
subscribe to
Beyond the 30% reformulation, Collboni promised in his election manifesto a “Plan Vivir en Barcelona” to increase the stock of subsidized housing and grow from the current 32,000 affordable housing to 50,000 in 2030 and 100,000 in 2050. The forecast is, Earn 1,500 per year. To finance them, the idea is to require that the Generalitat pay the deficit of 163 million with the Barcelona Housing Consortium and that of the 10,000 it wants to build, 2,300 are in Barcelona.
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits