"Barcelona has room to grow by 70,000 homes"

"Barcelona has room to grow by 70,000 homes." These are the words of Joan Ramon Riera, Housing Commissioner of Barcelona City Council, who on Thursday set figures for the city's growth limit. The existing public and private land for building housing in Barcelona would allow this figure to be reached. "Half of the available land is for housing with some degree of protection, and the other half is free," explained the commissioner.

Riera gave the figure to the Cycle of Meetings on Making Metropolitan Territory and Housing organized by Foment del Treball, in a dialogue with Xavier Vilajoana, president of the Association of Promoters and Builders (APCE). Both agreed that it is necessary for the city to create housing, whether on public or private land, to deal with the current situation of housing emergency.

Riera has focused the growth of housing in the areas of Sagrera and Marina del Prat Vermell (Zona Franca). Half of the 70,000 available public land homes are located there. "In 2025 we have proposed to activate the land of La Sagrera coinciding with the works of the new station," he explained.

Regarding the housing in Marina del Prat, Vermell has explained that "they are all at some stage of development." In fact, most of the social housing developments that are currently being awardedt are in that area. The rest of the available land "is scattered throughout the city" explained the commissioner.

Need for supply

Asked about housing prices in the city, Riera explained that "the situation of room prices is the result of the shortage of supply." The commissioner said that "supply must be activated with public-private collaboration."

As a representative of the private sector, Vilajoana regretted the "forty-six legislative changes in the last ten years" in a sector that "needs stability." Riera demanded "dynamism from the private sector" and Vilajoana replied that "there are no financing problems in sales operations, but there are in rentals due to the lengthening of the terms and legal uncertainty." He also reiterated that with the current tax surcharge, "it is not economically profitable to build a protected rental home."

The president of the developers has defended that the vulture funds are "a totally necessary operator to achieve the level of housing production that is desired." Vilajoana has explained that neither in Catalonia nor in Spain there is the money that the funds can provide. Without responding to the statement, Riera has explained the reason for the modus operandi of the vulture funds. "Residential housing is not enough for them to achieve the objective of profitability, they need seasonal rentals to reach the profit expectation."

30% and Casa Orsola

The dialogue has also revolved around the 30% measure. Both speakers agreed that it is necessary to modify the regulation. "We are in the political dialogue phase to process a reform of the measure," Riera explained, and Vilajoana asked him to "legislate by putting himself in the shoes of private developers," who he considers are "those who are going to develop the housing."

Regarding Carme Trilla's proposal to bring together the protected flats in the same building, Riera clarified that "transfer to areas where the public sector has a dominant position will be prohibited, so as not to leave the VPO in peripheral areas."

The commissioner also referred to the purchase of Casa Orsola by the City Council. "We have established a precedent, the idea is to formalize this new way of buying and have it as a tool to be able to intervene in the housing market, avoiding gentrification." Vilajoana has questioned the success of the operation, stating that "with the price paid for Casa Orsola, a lot of housing could have been built on public land."