The Generalitat has acquired 385 empty apartments, property of large holders, which will be used for social rental. They are part of the 10,000 homes that the Government promised seven months ago to provide in the next three years.
These 385 apartments that the Generalitat has purchased have been acquired via the right of first refusal and withdrawal. They are part of buildings already built, affected by dynamics of real estate speculation that will now become part of the public housing stock.
This morning, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés and the Territorial Minister, Ester Capella, visited one of those developments acquired in Salt. There are 24 properties in two blocks (ground floor and two floors) located on Indústria Street, for which the Government has paid 1.4 million euros.
A figure to which an additional 985,000 euros must be added for the rehabilitation of the properties, which are in a deplorable state. The forecast is that within a year and a half the first families will be able to move in.
The rest of the apartments up to 385 that the Generalitat has purchased directly are located in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Constantí, Valls, Reus and Barcelona. Territori does not want to specify yet how many it has in each of these municipalities until all operations have been formalized.
A total of 137 of these homes are owned by Sareb. The Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, has taken the opportunity to once again request the free transfer to the administrations of the properties owned by the so-called bad bank.
"Citizens have already paid a bank bailout; it is about there being a social return for what we saved one day, the balance sheets of financial entities," the head of Territori stated this morning. A demand, that the transfer of Sareb properties be free of charge, which Capella has explained that she has already transferred to the Minister of Transport and Urban Agenda.
The Generalitat has committed to investing 150 million euros in the direct purchase of a total of 1,500 homes in buildings already built to be used for social rental. Capella noted this morning that almost half of this figure has been reached.
To the 385 properties that have been announced today, there are 307 more that are not part of large developments, but are individual apartments distributed throughout the Catalan geography. In this case, the purchase method has also been trial and error.
Beyond the purchase of homes already built, the rest of the properties up to the 10,000 that the Government has committed to having in 2026, will arrive via Incasòl (about 1,000), via the transfer of public land by the Generalitat to that private developers build social rental housing (about 2,100) and access public aid and promotion subsidies. In this last category Capella explains that the Government has promoted the construction of more than 5,000 social rental apartments.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has highlighted that the Government "is using all the formulas we have at our disposal to change the paradigm and for public housing to make a leap forward."
He also explained other measures that the Catalan administration is carrying out in this matter. This year, more than 71,000 families will receive help to cover rental expenses, 25% more than the previous year. Soon, the Government could begin to regulate seasonal rental housing for tourist use.
