The reality: 39% of Barcelona residents and their neighbors in the metropolitan area allocate more than 40% of their income to paying for housing, whether it is rent or a mortgage; and prices continue to rise. The lack of supply constrains the market and the prospects are not optimistic: it is estimated that until 2050 the demand will be 450,000 new homes. “The problem is so big that it can only be solved by building and with large numbers,” maintains Jaume Oliu, one of the coordinators of the latest Barcelona Global report on how to generate affordable housing. The entity demands an acceleration plan from the administration, that the procedures for approving projects and granting licenses be more agile and that strategies be established that guarantee the economic viability of the projects.
The solution will have to be sought outside of Barcelona, where there is more land available: "The problem of affordable housing - which requires less than 30% of a citizen's income - has to be approached from a metropolitan perspective and vision, with a planning consensual", reiterated yesterday Maite Barrera, president of the entity, during the presentation of the report. The document is the result of six months of work in which 56 experts have participated, including Lluís Cases (Garrigues), Anna Gener (Savills), Pau Pérez de Acha (Sareb), Marcel Prunera (Guinot Prunera), Manel Rodíguez ( SALAS) or Carme Trilla (president of the Metropolitan Housing Observatory and the Habitat3 Foundation).
“We have worked on structural measures, analyzing what can be done in the metropolitan region,” said Trilla. The document concludes that it is possible to generate the necessary amount of affordable housing – in total about 25,000 apartments – within a period of five years, as long as the administration is involved in it. As? managing residential land that is already classified and simplifying the regulatory framework. “We have to go faster, we cannot wait ten years to start building,” insisted Jaume Oliu, general director of Raset Ventures.
“We must produce and build, based on the metropolitan PDU (Urban Master Plan), which must be approved soon to develop residential land as soon as possible,” added Carme Conesa, general director of Barcelona Global, referring to the Baix Llobregat PDU, which foresees almost 16,000 homes, the PDU of the Tres i Reixach, with more than 2,000 homes in the ARE Can Duran, a plan that the City Council is now reviewing.
“There are many developers who want to make a living, but in many cases the urban planning does not work... there are many technical requirements that involve a lot of work, small town councils are sometimes overwhelmed, then the project goes through the urban planning commission and "There are conflicts of interest..." said Manel Rodríguez, general director of SALAS.
The report addresses other measures to alleviate homelessness, such as empty apartments or changes of use, “but their contribution is insignificant, taking into account the magnitude of the problem,” said Oliu. Even so, Trilla did point out that the misuse of seasonal rentals does contribute to increasing rental prices.
