Sánchez returns to Catalonia and agrees with Illa on more housing measures

Sant Boi de LlobregatPedro Sánchez has chosen Sant Boi de Llobregat to return to Catalonia this Thursday and show that housing remains the main priority of the legislature. The Spanish president closed last year by announcing the creation of a state-owned public housing company and began in 2025 with a battery of measures – from tax breaks for property owners to limiting the purchase of housing by foreigners – to try to alleviate this problem. This Thursday he wanted to use Catalonia as an example of the path to follow: Sánchez accompanied the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, on a visit to a promotion of 40 protected homes in Sant Boi de Llobregat that will be aimed especially at young people. Illa took advantage of the visit to make a new announcement: in the executive council next Tuesday, the Government will approve the first call for public reservation of plots (there will be two this year) to build public housing.

In the general policy debate, The president promised 50,000 public housing units (one of the investiture commitments with ERC and the Comuns) until 2030 and, among the series of measures that he announced, there was also that of creating a public reserve of land to make public plots available for the construction of public rental housing. The Government committed to making the first call for proposals this February 2025 with the aim of expanding the reserve of available land. In this sense, Illa has explained that all the plots that have been ceded to them by the municipalities of Catalonia until now will be put out to tender to build social housing.

In parallel, next week's executive council will also approve a package of measures to speed up the administrative procedures to build housing "faster". Among these measures, Illa has explained that a new type of license will be created: the basic administrative license, which should serve to speed up the preliminary work for the construction of housing. "More plots and more speed to build. We are taking the right steps," Illa has defended.

"These 40 new homes that will see the light of day are a small step in the right direction to tackle this problem," Sánchez said, defending the collaboration between administrations and also that between the public and private sectors. On the visit that Sánchez and Isla made this morning they were also accompanied by the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez; the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque; the Mayor of Sant Boi and President of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Lluïsa Moret, and the delegate of the Spanish government in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto. An image that also did not allow for any cracks in the collaboration that Isla has proclaimed, since the socialists dominate all the administrations represented this Thursday in Sant Boi.

They demand that the PP not "boycott" the housing law

The messages from Sánchez and Isla were in unison when it came to defending measures such as the housing law, which they considered key to dealing with the housing emergency. The Spanish president has assured that the regulations "work" and "offer tools" to stop the rise in prices: "Catalonia is the best example." And at this point, Sánchez has taken the opportunity to send a message to the PP and its autonomous governments, which have become the thorn in the side of the Spanish government in applying measures such as the housing law.

"We need consistency and determination. All that is needed is the will to apply the housing law, we cannot accept the boycott that some administrations are doing to apply it," said the Spanish president, who has called on all autonomous governments to apply the regulations. Salvador Illa added this when he defended housing as a "challenge" against the model of "shared prosperity" that his government defends. A model that has confronted "others who defend models of unsupportive accumulation", in a dart towards the Madrid government led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso.