Yes, housing is a big problem
The housing situation is a major problem. Citizens have known this for some time, and for months now, the Spanish and Catalan governments have also been well aware of it and are launching initiatives to try to resolve it, despite knowing that any step in this direction takes time. An issue that the administrations neglected for many years is unlikely to be resolved quickly.
If there is one great need, it is to increase the supply, which is nowhere near meeting the growing demand and is therefore putting unstoppable upward pressure on prices. Economics textbooks explain this: if demand grows faster than supply, prices rise, and the wider the gap between the two, the higher the price rises, which is precisely what is happening.
According to data on building permits from the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), although many individuals and families are looking for homes, Visas are falling, indicating that new apartment construction will decrease in the coming months.This is the exact opposite of what the country needs. And it's a widespread phenomenon throughout Catalonia, where the number of new housing units fell by 7.5% in 2025 compared to the previous year. But it's particularly striking in Barcelona, with a drop of almost 40%. Furthermore, although half of all approved housing units were social housing, the previous year's figure was double that, which is also not good news.
Architects attribute this trend, which will eventually lead to an even smaller supply of housing and a greater reliance on resale properties, to the lack of available land in the city and regulations such as the requirement to reserve 30% of new developments for social housing. This obligation, they assert, has been a source of frustration for developers and builders, who believe that in many cases the numbers simply don't add up.
The Director General of the COAC (Official College of Architects of Catalonia), Sònia Oliveras, acknowledges that "there is a lot of political will" and that "the tools are being increased, but the approval of permits for privately developed housing is still not recovering." However, the COAC does not want to succumb to pessimism and believes that the Catalan government's objectives of building 50,000 homes by 2030 and promoting 210,000 public-private partnerships "will soon materialize with more activity in the sector," according to the Dean of the College, Guim Costa. It will then be a matter of time before an increase in supply leads to lower prices. The Catalan government is working on measures to make more land available and reduce administrative delays for construction. Many initiatives are needed simultaneously. There are also initiatives in the rental sector, which must be strengthened. In Catalonia, in addition to limiting rents in high-demand areas by adhering to the national housing law, other initiatives have been implemented, such as the regulation of seasonal rentals. This was a loophole through which offers that could be used for permanent housing were being diverted, thus avoiding the price cap. Ultimately, what is needed is to accelerate all steps to increase supply.