The end of social housing exposes 400 families in Sant Andreu to paying triple the rent.

BarcelonaWhile exploring ways to accelerate the construction of affordable housing, Barcelona continues to lose entire blocks of subsidized housing. The latest case is particularly symbolic. ARA has learned that residents of the iconic Meridiano Cero block—the complex of more than 1,100 apartments that was built on Meridiana in 1975 and is popularly known for housing the Hipercor (Hypercor store)—have begun receiving burofaxes informing them that 50 years later, their families will have to pay double or even triple their rent.

The letters from the real estate agency Cevasa—specializing in affordable rentals and a partner in the subsidized housing developer for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, with a 25% stake—have fallen like a bombshell among the neighborhoods still living in subsidized housing. Almost all of them arrived in Sant Andreu when they were between 20 and 30 years old and are now pensioners. "I haven't been able to sleep for days. It's not fair that this is happening to people our age," laments one resident, who prefers to remain anonymous. Although they were aware that the terms of their rental agreement would change starting this year, they didn't expect the price increase to be so high.

In fact, most of the affected residents have entrusted their responses to the Cevasa fax to lawyers. The reason? They consider the proposed increase to be irregular because it seeks to update prices by adding the accumulated CPI for all the years the home has been protected. While the residents' lawyers argue that this option—provided for in the second transitional provision of the Urban Leasing Law (LAU)—can no longer be applied because more than 10 years have passed since the law was passed and, therefore, they consider it to have expired, sources at Cevasa maintain that the option remains valid because the deadline is still valid. That is, now.

"Legally, although there is no case law, we understand that the thesis to be imposed is that of the prescription of the legal power to update these rents. Furthermore, this option is not provided for leases that come from the official protection regime like these, and even less so when they end the protection regime," Alejandro Fuentes-Lojo, an expert in real estate law, who represents the majority of residents, explains to ARA.

So far, only the residents of three stairwells facing Avenida Meridiana—the first ones built in 1975—have received the burofax, but in the coming months, the remaining 18 blocks that make up this immense complex in the Sant Andreu district will also receive it. For now, there are three responses to the letter: those who try to prove that the household income does not exceed 2.5 times the minimum wage and that, therefore, they will maintain the current conditions; those who accept the increase; and those who reject the increase because they consider it irregular and, in all likelihood, will end up in litigation with Cevasa. The Cevasa burofax includes a fourth scenario—also provided for in the law—in which tenants with sufficient income but who do not want the price increase to apply can reject it in exchange for accepting that their rental contract will expire after eight years.

Boosts up to 1,400%

The ARA has been able to access several of these certified letters, and in all of them, Cevasa notifies the end of the protection and warns of the relevant increase based on what each resident was paying in the initial rent of their contract. For example, in one of these documents, the owner explains that the inflation rate to be applied, according to the CPI variation over the last 50 years, is 1,496.6%. In this case, given that the resident in question started paying a rent equivalent to approximately 50 euros, their new fee will now be 722 euros. They now pay 230 euros. A similar case is faced by Pere and Dolors (fictitious names), who currently pay around 400 euros. And now, with this increase, the owner is asking for more than 1,000 euros. "With the property tax and services, we will end up paying 1,150 euros," Pere explains in a statement to the ARA. However, unlike other residents, he maintains that he does not feel cheated. "I accept it with resignation. We all knew it was 50 years away, but it seems like things were never going to happen. There are people who live alone, and perhaps it's affected them more; there are two of us and we have two salaries," she adds.

According to calculations by the Meridiano Centro Neighborhood Association, there are around 400 families who will soon have to face significant rent increases. Sources from the real estate agency also emphasize that despite the increase, the rents will continue to be affordable. "Either of the two could be missing. How will I be able to afford such a high rent on my own?" asks Margarida. Sources from Cevasa admit this option, but argue that it is unavoidable given the open-ended rental contracts.

Half of the apartments are on the open market

Beyond the 534 apartments that are about to be desubsidized, the Meridiana Cero development has been losing social housing for years. In fact, more than half are no longer subsidized. 645 of the 1,179 homes in the complex have been transferred to the open market in the last 30 years, thanks to a decree approved by the Spanish government in 1993.

This has meant, for example, that in some cases even people who were born in the building have ended up living in another one. Of course, they pay much more than their parents. In Joan's case, for example, he pays rent of just over 100 euros, and his son pays more than 1,000 for an identical apartment. The same thing happened to Margarita and Josep, although in this case their son ended up leaving Barcelona a few years ago after being asked for 1,400 euros during the last lease renewal.

The Meridiano Cero Neighborhood Association also denounces that Cevasa has been very proactive in reducing old rental contracts and has even hired detectives to investigate whether some residents spent part of the year in their apartments—the law requires a minimum of six months of residence to maintain social security—and evict them. They describe, for example, the case of a woman who lost her apartment after moving to Andalusia for a few months to help her daughter, who had just become a mother.

Cevasa admits that over the years, several lawsuits have been filed against people who did not meet the requirements because they had a second residence within the Barcelona Metropolitan Area or even more apartments in the same city. They describe, for example, the case of a neighbor who discovered that, despite paying social security rent, he owned four apartments on Aragó Street. However, they emphasize that in all cases, they offer the person to continue living in Meridiana Cero but paying market rent.