Affordable rents in Barcelona – an ongoing effort
Big cities in Spain struggle to provide accommodations for all at decent prices. But Barcelona’s authorities are actively addressing this issue. The budget on housing has been multiplied by four in the last two years. Barcelona’s city council is the administration that more resources allocated for this purpose.
For low to middle-class budgets, it is not as easy as it used to be to find affordable rentals in Barcelona, as already reported in Barcelona apartment renting – the leap explained. In some areas of the city where high demand and low offer has become a standard, it is vital to work on accessibility to affordable rents.
A great deal of work was carried out last year to bring into the public real estate holdings over 1000 apartments. In addition, the building of 150 new homes lay the first stone of an expected total of 547 new apartments. Moreover, acquisition processes are underway for another 446 home units.
The municipality of Barcelona is working at bringing in 10000 affordable rents in Barcelona.
Bring in more assets
But building anew is not the only option. The municipality has put in place various mechanisms to take in extra housing units.
The first of the them, the campaign “You have the key” (Tú tienes la llave) got 101 flats, which were added to the 633 already belonging to the city’s Social housing exchange holdings. The second was the purchase of 446 apartments, which averaged each 70,000€ purchase and rehabilitation included. The program “First the Home” (Primero el hogar) has attracted and currently manages 50 units and the remaining 250 come from the Agreement between the city and the Foundation Habitat3.
The Plan for the Right to Housing 2016-2025 is the third to be driven in the city since 2002 and, with a budget of 1,666 million€, is the one with more funding.
In 2015 the public housing managed directly by the city consisted of 6500 flats. It is anticipated that when the mandate ends, 10000 affordable rents in Barcelona will be made available.
