What are and where are the official protection homes that Barcelona will raffle during 2026
Still has pending to distribute 350 apartments of the almost 600 that it wants to put at the disposal of the citizenry throughout the year
BarcelonaThe Barcelona City Council plans to raffle 598 official protection homes (HPO) during 2026, more than 80% of which will be for rent. According to information obtained by the newspaper ARA, they are distributed in twelve developments, and the council will hold a raffle for each one. So far, Barcelona has already completed five, which have served to distribute 246 apartments, 41.13% of the total. A raffle is planned for this May, one in June, one in September, a couple in November, and two more in December.
For Jaime Palomera, a researcher at the Barcelona Urban Research Institute, "it is a very small figure" in a city with almost 800,000 homes. However, he argues that "in the last decade, the public housing market has expanded as it had not been done in the previous fifty years," even though it is not enough to change the "previous dynamics."
"in the last decade, the public housing market has expanded as it had not been done in the previous fifty years", despite it not being enough to change the "previous dynamics."
The properties of ten of the twelve HPO packages will be entirely for affordable rent, while one of the developments in Ciutat Vella and half of one in Sants-Montjuïc will be awarded under the right of superficies regime, which allows the use of the property for 75 years. Once the mortgage – lower than the market price – is paid, the owners can continue living there until the period expires.
Action by districts
4 out of 10 homes are in the Sants-Montjuïc districtAccording to Palomera, there are "two expansion zones where Barcelona can grow in housing and density": La Marina del Prat Vermell (in the Sants-Montjuïc district) and Poblenou. On the other hand, in Ciutat Vella, L'Eixample and other more central neighborhoods "the strategy must be different, what you need is to protect the population from tourist and investor pressure". In these cases, rather than building, the main strategies of administrations to influence the market are to bet on rehabilitation, recover empty apartments – many of which are intended for commercial activities – and "make good use of the few urban plots" and heights.
In fact, although Ciutat Vella accounts for 33.3% of the developments to be raffled during the year, it only accounts for 14% of the apartments. On the other hand, 4 out of 10 homes are in the Sants-Montjuïc district, despite concentrating 16.6% of the developments.
New construction developments
There are still 352 properties to be allocated, of which 86% are newly built, a similar proportion compared to the total number of flats that will be put out to tender this year. The remaining 13.6% are renovated homes. This May, the City Council will make the 36 properties of the Grèvol Building, on Vallcarca Avenue, available to citizens. They are flats with between two and three bedrooms, all of them with terraces and balconies. The building will also have two commercial premises and storage rooms.
A few weeks later, in June, it will allocate the 36 homes on Ronda de Sant Pau (Ciutat Vella), as part of the project linked to the historic social gym. They are between 54 and 60 square meters and the rent will not exceed 400 euros per month. While 25 will be allocated by lottery, the remaining eleven will be reserved for people in vulnerable situations.
Likewise, on Carrilet Avenue (Sants-Montjuïc), the City Council has erected the Quertzal building using industrialized construction, meaning it is made from pre-fabricated modules fitted together on the plot. It will house forty homes, which it plans to raffle in November. The flats will be distributed between the second and ninth floors, and on the first floor, there will be communal spaces: a dining room with a kitchen, a multipurpose room, a laundry room, and a terrace. In fact, all will have a private one: 24 will have one bedroom with the possibility of adding a second, and the rest will be studio-type. On the ground floor, there will be a municipal facility, a multipurpose room, a reception, and a bicycle parking area.
Finally, the Pontils building is located in the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood, in Sants, between Cal Cisó, Pontils, Motors streets and Zona Franca Avenue. In this case, there will be two allocation calls – scheduled for September – as the flats are offered both under affordable rent and surface rights. They are between 43 and 88 square meters and have up to three bedrooms and a storage room. All properties in the second category include a parking space, while among those for rent, only about eighty will have one.
Renovation of flats
On the other hand, the last three promotions that the City Council will raffle are for renovated flats. On the one hand, on Aragó street, the consistory has put eleven flats ready to move into, which it will distribute in November, and has maintained the structure and volume of the original building, typical of the constructions in the Eixample.
It has done the same on Lancaster street, in Ciutat Vella, where nine years ago it bought three buildings next to La Rambla for 5.6 million euros. Even then, the municipal government led by Ada Colau expressed its intention that the 41 homes would become part of the public housing stock: in December, it will raffle off 29 of them. That same month, it plans to distribute eight on Reina Amàlia street, in the same district.
Key handover
On the other hand, the City Council wants to close the year having handed over the keys to 939 officially protected homes to their awardees. As the ARA has learned, 63.8% are for rent, 14.59% are cooperative housing, and 19.8% are under the right of surface regime (the owner pays a mortgage and can use it for 75 years). The remaining seventeen (1.8%) are reserved for young people.
By mid-May, the City Council had already handed over 128 properties (all for rent) from four developments – 13.63% of the total – and part of a fifth. The awardees are people registered in the HPO Applicant Registry, who have won property lotteries or have accessed them thanks to the reservation for vulnerable people.
The homes are distributed across nineteen developments. Six are in the Ciutat Vella district; four in Sant Martí; three in Sants-Montjuïc; two in Gràcia; and one each in Sant Andreu, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, l'Eixample, and Nou Barris.