Within the World Capital of Architecture, the exhibition presenting the official city proposal by the current City Council is Barcelona 2035, at the Architecture House. What strategy and model are behind it? The exhibition is divided into four concepts similar to the parts into which rationalist urbanism of the CIAM, almost 100 years ago, divided the urban organism: to live, to work, to coexist, and to move. And it is organized into Major Transformation Areas, a version of the New Centrality Areas from 1987, at the end of Pasqual Maragall's term. But if then it was an open and successful strategy for the pre-Olympic restructuring, today it is incomplete and does not respond to the needs of the entire city. The exhibition presents the entire stretch of the Barcelona waterfront, without clarifying that Barcelona Regional has been working on it for decades. It focuses on four poles of health, innovation, and knowledge: the Ciutadella del Coneixement, next to Ciutadella Park; the BioClúster d’Innovació i Salut, around Bellvitge University Hospital and the Catalan Institute of Oncology; Porta Diagonal, where the new Campus Clínic will be located, and the new buildings at Vall d’Hebron Hospital, taking advantage of the platform of the Dalt Ring Road cover. It highlights the new Montjuïc, with the restructuring of the Fira's industrial buildings and a poorly defined new neighborhood in Poble-sec. The state of the three major transformation areas is presented: the classic 22@ and its northern part, citing the 2018 revision but without going into detail; the Marina del Prat Vermell, which contributes housing construction, and Sagrera, its station, the housing on the margins, and the 4-kilometer metropolitan linear park, which had a magnificent project by the renowned Catalan teams RCR Arquitectes and Alday/Jover, and which has been authoritatively decided to be suspended. And it ends with the controversial Catalunya Media City at Les Tres Xemeneies. 

Updates to the list of Catalan municipalities that meet the conditions for applying the rent price cap. The Generalitat has reviewed the declaration of municipalities considered a tense residential market area and has incorporated and excluded several towns: after conducting a study on the housing situation, the Government proposes that 302 municipalities have official recognition that their housing market is tense.

Pedro Sánchez cannot find support to move forward with the housing measures he announced almost a month ago. After weeks of tug-of-war with the investiture bloc partners, particularly with Junts, the Spanish government has decided to postpone the approval of the new housing decree until after the summer, which, among other things, was to include an extraordinary extension of rents until 2028, as reported by El País and confirmed by the Ministry of Housing.

The new political season will begin with many pending tasks. But there is one that stands out for its social and economic significance: housing. It is a central concern for many young people who cannot become independent, for families who dedicate an increasing part of their income to rent or mortgage, and for companies that have difficulty attracting talent.The debate usually focuses on rent caps, tourist apartments, or large landlords. These are very relevant issues, but we often forget a more fundamental one: there is a shortage of housing in Catalonia.Between 2021 and 2025, a demand for more than 200,000 new homes was generated, while just over 60,000 were completed. The accumulated deficit exceeds 140,000 homes in five years. Currently, Catalonia builds around 14,000 annually, when the needs are between 30,000 and 35,000. We cover less than half. The difference compared to other European countries lies in planning, execution capacity, and resources.This insufficiency is compounded by demographic reality. In 2024, Catalonia registered an external migratory balance of over 129,000 people. Immigration has a overwhelmingly positive impact: it provides workers, entrepreneurship, and contributions, and helps sustain an aging society. In Catalonia, no one is superfluous, but it is essential to plan and adequately manage flows. We cannot accommodate one of the highest migratory growths in Europe without adapting housing, infrastructure, and public services accordingly.

While more foreign tourists than ever arrive in Catalonia, domestic tourism is falling. Excursions and trips by Catalans within the territory are down 25.6% compared to before the pandemic, 2019. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) compiled by ARA, trips are down 19.1%, and day trips are down 28.3%.

In the midst of the housing crisis, the Government has made officially protected housing (HPO) one of its flagship projects. This Friday, the PSC and Comuns have presented a bill to accelerate the creation of officially protected housing that includes five measures, one of which is to give interested owners the option to convert commercial premises, offices, and hotels into protected apartments. According to sources close to the negotiation, "if everything went well and the entire package of measures worked" it could serve to incorporate up to 20,000 apartments. "It was an unavoidable priority to expand the stock of protected housing and ensure that housing fulfills its essential function of being a home," defended the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at the joint presentation of this regulation alongside the leader of Comuns, Jéssica Albiach.

Sumar announced this Wednesday that it has agreed with the PSOE on the extension of rents until 2028 through a new housing decree that will also include tax incentives for owners, an indispensable measure to achieve the text to be finally approved with the favorable vote of Junts in Congress.

The Ministry of Housing announced this Monday that David Lucas, Secretary of State for Housing, has died at the age of 58. Lucas, who had also been the mayor of Móstoles, had put his public life on hold at the end of June to be treated for cancer, which he could not overcome. "The ministry deeply regrets the loss of an excellent colleague who dedicated his life to public service and the common good".

Mortgage signings in Catalonia grew by 9.3% in May compared to the same period last year, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) published this Monday. They gained prominence in a highly strained market and came to represent 84.4% of total operations.

New construction is growing in Catalonia, but not to provide housing. In the first six months of the year, the College of Architects of Catalonia (Coac) has issued permits to build or extensively renovate 2.41 million square meters in Catalonia, a 13.46% increase compared to the same period last year. However, although housing is what the ongoing constructions will be predominantly for (almost 1.6 million m², 66% of the total), the increase in actions has been concentrated in other uses – which have grown by 54.24% compared to 2025 – while it has stagnated for housing – an area where it has increased by 0.54%–. In fact, architects have approved 2.59% fewer new construction and renovation homes, down to 7,897: that is, Catalonia is making fewer apartments available than a year ago, but, on the one hand, they are larger, and, on the other hand, renovations are keeping the surface area with ongoing actions for housing stable.

The housing crisis is also a drag on business growth. This is according to a report prepared by the SME Observatory of the Catalan employers' association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, which indicates that one out of every two businesses in the country has renounced applying growth measures – from expanding staff to opening new production centers – due to the residential pressure suffered by both the company and the workers.

Buying a flat is a decision made after crunching numbers and more numbers and weighing multiple variables. Among them, the money the buyer will have to disburse when the transaction materializes, which causes more than one or two headaches.

New public housing developments and greener, more accessible streets designed for pedestrians. Also, facilities that recover heritage and reconnect neighborhoods. Around the Llobregat and Besòs rivers, riparian areas that are being renaturalized to gain biodiversity and resilience. These are some of the actions with which the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is shaping the metropolis of the future: a network of projects that not only build or renovate, but also adapt the territory to an increasingly demanding urban context.

The real estate franchise Tecnocasa has turned to the thousand offices it has throughout Spain to analyze the housing market situation and conclude that "clearly, there is a change in cycle", in the words of the company's CEO, Paolo Boarini. "It is very difficult for prices to continue rising," he warned at the presentation of the report prepared by the Tecnocasa-Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) Chair this Wednesday.

When there are just over 48 hours left for Parliament to vote on whether to begin processing the Comuns' proposed law to prohibit speculative housing purchases, the property owners' association Som Habitatge has presented a legal report arguing that the regulation is unconstitutional.

More than three years after the state housing law came into force, the Generalitat has fined three large holders for the first time – meaning owners of more than five homes each – for non-compliance with the regulations, as reported by the Efe agency this Friday. In response to questions from ARA, the Department of Territory and Housing has not specified what type of non-compliance it is (whether it is, for example, for violating the rent cap).

Colonial SFL, until now focused on the office markets of Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris, has overcome one of its pending tasks: setting foot in Berlin. For some time now, the top executives of the Catalan real estate company, Juan José Brugera (president) and Pere Viñolas (CEO) had expressed interest to bring its business model to the German capital.

The Generalitat's flagship housing plan —and arguably one of the most significant of the legislature— is to add 50,000 protected homes to the public stock by 2030. Salvador Illa's strategy involves identifying plots of land ready for construction and then offering them to municipalities and developers. This Wednesday, the Government has put out to tender 16 of the 59 plots with capacity for fewer than 20 homes each that the executive has included in its plan. As ARA has learned, this week it will release 8 more of the same type, bringing the total to 24 plots.

After three consecutive increases (March, April, and May), the daily one-year Euribor in June, the main reference for variable interest rate mortgages, has moderated and experienced a slight decrease compared to the previous month. The indicator closed the month at 2.728%, and therefore, an average in June of 2.798%, below the 2.8% of the previous month. In any case, the amount paid by mortgagors will continue to rise, with an increase of 66.40 euros per month and 796.8 euros per year on average, as it is compared to the 2.081% that existed a year ago.

Less bureaucracy, more administrative agility, and facilitating urban planning and land transformation. This is the recipe from the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) to increase housing supply and, therefore, reduce housing prices.