X-ray of the 30% reserve of social housing
In the first five years of the measure, 10% of the planned homes have been built.
BarcelonaIn 2018, Barcelona City Council, headed by Ada Colau, implemented a measure requiring 30% of new housing developments and major renovations to be allocated to social housing. With this regulation, the Comuns promised the creation of some 330 affordable homes per year. Five years later, the forecast is far from reality. According to data from Barcelona City Council, 156 of the 1,650 planned homes have been built. 10%.
At the plenary session of the City Council on December 31, Mayor Jaume Collboni made clear his position regarding a measure that was approved with the vote of Barcelona en Comú, the PSC, Junts and ERC: "With political honesty and common sense we must rectify," he said. Juntos also wants to rethink it and ERC is open to introducing changes, but the Comuns are opposed to it. The battle is on. But politics aside, what is the position of the experts on this matter?
Jordi Bonshoms, a professor in the Department of Law at Pompeu Fabra University, explains why, in his opinion, the measure has not worked: "It was not expected that so little would be built, but that does not mean that the measure is wrong; the private sector had to swallow it and it has not." The truth is that there is consensus in the sector that the regulation, born from the demands of entities defending the right to housing, has been applied successfully in New York or Paris.
Curbing private investment
The Socialists consider the measure "mistaken" and argue that it has acted as a brake on private investment. "It is a very controversial policy because it affects the interests of developers; the City Council tells them how to do things," explains Bonshoms. The reality is that private developers have reduced the construction of housing in Barcelona since the measure was implemented. And, on the other hand, construction has grown in Sabadell, Terrassa and in cities in the metropolitan area where this regulation does not exist.
"Legislation has been passed without taking into account the main promoter of protected housing in Catalonia; any proposal for improvement would be positive," claimed Xavier Vilajoana, president of the Association of Promoters and Builders of Catalonia (APCE) at the presentation of his entity's annual study. This study explained that in 2024, 1,151 homes were started in the municipality of Barcelona, 10.8% less than in 2023.
The promoters link the decline in construction in the Catalan capital with the 30% measure, and Bonshoms also finds a relationship. "For it to work, persuasion from the public sector towards the private sector is necessary; if you tell a promoter that out of 10 homes that he puts up for sale, 3 are officially protected, you are telling him that he will earn less money."
Initial moratorium
The Comuns are referring to a report from the Barcelona Institute for Urban Research (IDRA) to justify the low number of homes built in the first years of the measure. The study explains that during 2019 and 2020 a moratorium was in force that allowed the approval of homes without the 30% reserve. Therefore, the measure began to operate in 2021, in a post-pandemic context.
On the other hand, they look at the example of Paris, where a similar measure has worked, and they affirm that in Barcelona it should be evaluated in twenty-year cycles and not with immediate effect. An expert voice consulted by the ARA agrees: "Building housing is a process of between 3 and 5 years; if we do not look at long periods, we cannot see its effect."
The IDRA study also assures that the measure acts as a dam; it discourages speculative practices and prevents mass evictions of tenants. They explain that it stops the practice of funds buying all the flats in a building, evicting the tenants and raising the prices, because by having to allocate 30% of these dwellings to social housing, they cannot obtain the same economic profit.
Trilla's plan
Collboni wants to "make viable" the 30% measure, so he asked expert Carme Trilla to reformulate the law. This expert's proposal is that the apartments resulting from applying the 30% for VPO can be grouped together in a single building, even if they are from different developers. However, the VPO buildings should be moved to other buildings in the same neighbourhood. In addition, a public-private or private organisation would be created to manage these apartments.
In this way, private developers could allocate 100% of the properties to free market housing, transferring 30% of VPO to another building. Trilla, in conversation with the ARA, "explains that the option already exists and that the reform aims to simplify the process."
An expert in housing consulted by the ARA and who asks to remain anonymous maintains that Trilla's reform makes the measure lose half of its meaning. "We will continue to have a percentage of VPO, but we will not face segregation." The expert adds that the measure "can cause protected housing to accumulate in certain areas of the neighborhoods and divide them."
For now, Trilla has met with the developers and political entities to develop the measure. The ball is in Jaume Collboni's court, who has already begun the round of contacts with the groups and who needs to reach consensus to unblock the dead end in which the 30% measure finds itself.
