The Generalitat of Catalonia seeks the complicity of the private sector to build public apartments on a rental basis. The Catalan administration will transfer land it owns to companies in the sector so that they will be in charge of building the new homes on their land. The initiative will start in Esplugues de Llobregat, a city in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, a region where the lack of affordable housing is a pressing problem. This was announced this Monday by the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, from this town.
The first three plots owned by Incasòl - an organization dependent on the Generalitat - will go out to tender this December. They are located in the Montesa strategic residential area (ARE) sector, the next urban development in Esplugues, where workers can be seen working for months now.
On the Incasòl plots, which will be transferred to companies under the surface right regime, up to 341 homes can be built. For 75 years, private developers will have the right to build and operate developments of officially subsidized rental apartments. After that time, the homes will be part of the Generalitat's public park.
Beyond Esplugues, the Government's objective is to reach more than 1,000 public rental apartments through this type of public-private collaboration. In fact, similar projects are being prepared in Cerdanyola del Vallès, Begues and La Seu d'Urgell with a capacity of close to 400 apartments. Everything is part of the different plans of the Generalitat, which promises to add 10,000 new homes to the public rental stock in three years.
“It is always important to join with the participation of public administrations but also civil society, which is part of the country's economic engine and allows us to transform and build a Catalonia for all,” said Capella. “With the transfer to private operators, what we do is accelerate the construction of affordable housing,” she added. “The objective is to put Catalonia at the levels of social housing in Europe,” stated the Regional Minister.
In the area of Esplugues, the specifications of the public tender establish that the price may not exceed an economic effort greater than 30% of the income of the cohabitation unit. In other words, the rent will be affordable for the families who live there. The Territory Department will work to ensure that the rest of the promotions in this modality of public-private collaboration also meet this requirement.
The mayor of Esplugues, Pilar Díaz, claimed that the ARE Montesa is an opportunity to consolidate her city as a “metropolitan centrality.” According to the City Council, 2,105 homes will be built in that sector over the next few years. More than half, 1,059, will be protected. And of the public ones, 70% will be sold on a rental basis.
The Montesa neighborhood will have about eleven hectares and its name comes from the historic motorcycle factory. Located where the old Rayo Amarillo football field was located, the neighborhood planning was approved for the first time in 2009 but was updated in 2019. In addition to financing equipment such as a new local police headquarters, the The City Council will promote 90 officially protected homes under the general regime. It is one of the most important planned urban planning and housing operations in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
