The Government strengthens its objective of building 50,000 public housing units by 2030 with the announcement of a new investment. This Tuesday, the Catalan executive has authorized the Institut Català del Sòl (Incasòl) to allocate an additional 251.8 million euros to the promotion of affordable public homes, a figure that comes from the treasury reserves of the 2025 fiscal year and can be used throughout 2026. "This measure should allow for an increase in Incasòl's contribution to address the housing market situation, as well as the need to expand public housing stock," specify the Government agreements published this Tuesday, which also indicate that the executive is working on "other avenues" to expand the current housing supply.

The State Housing Plan 2026-2030 represents a break with the previous one and, in general, with the tradition of Spanish policy for the promotion of affordable housing. Swings usually respond to confusion, but moreover, this particular change has not pleased the minority partner of the Spanish government –Sumar–, which is betting on a different third way. Can we shed some light on the darkness?Traditionally, policy had consisted in aiding the developer by facilitating and subsidizing financing, but the much more aggressive 2022-2025 Plan started from the principle that the problem was the price and the inability of many modest families to cope with it. Consequently, the focus shifted to aiding the tenant: 40% of the rent for low-income families; €250 per month for those under 35 for two years; up to 100% of the rent for vulnerable groups (victims of gender-based violence, homeless people, etc.).This approach was bound to fail, because if the problem is a lack of housing, helping some families access the little that exists only serves to transfer the problem to others, who will now be left without. The 2026-2030 Plan starts from the principle – much more sensible – that the problem is a lack of supply, and therefore, what it does is create an incentive for private developers to build. The incentive is generous: a subsidy of between 85,000 and 110,000 euros per dwelling. Taking into account that the construction cost is around 1,200 €/m², the subsidy is equivalent to the entire cost of a dwelling of 80 or 90 m², so that for the developer to make the numbers work, the rent only needs to cover the cost of the land. This approach will work because it will boost construction, but it has two problems. Before addressing them, however, we must examine why Sumar dislikes it and what this party prefers.Sumar does not like taxpayer money being put into the pockets of private companies. It is an understandable concern, but we have already seen why it cannot work – in fact, why it has not worked – putting it into the pockets of the most needy individuals. Aware of this problem, Sumar is committed to the fight against speculation; that is, against those who charge high rents, hence the insistence on freezing rents and limiting “large landlords”. We will talk about speculators later, but what matters now is that this approach has exactly the same limitations as direct aid to the most disadvantaged tenants: in the case of freezing, for example, it helps those who already have a contract, but it does not help those who do not have one at all.If we set aside the aesthetics, then, the 2026-2030 Plan is better focused than the alternatives: it will promote construction, which is what needs to be done now. Another thing is that it is also entirely opportune to limit the extraordinary profits that owners are obtaining due to a situation of scarcity. We are not talking about the remuneration that an idealized market grants to effort or risk, but about an unearned and sterile remuneration that comes exclusively from luck. However, I have already advanced that the scheme has two problems. The first is that –sooner rather than later– all aid will be captured by landowners through an increase in their price. It is a mechanism that most academic economists ignore, but which was accurately described by the fathers of their discipline –Adam Smith and David Ricardo– more than 200 years ago. As long as land is scarce, all aid will end up in the pockets of its owners.This brings us to the second problem, which is none other than the growth in demand. It is good to boost construction, because that is what is needed now, but without forgetting the origin of the problem, which is none other than excessively high immigration, an irresponsible commitment to urban tourism, and a successful policy of attracting foreign students by public and private educational institutions.

I find it hard to understand that Junts' proposals to tackle the housing crisis involve re-deducting mortgage and rent expenses, because it is uninspired. A good part of the ideas on which Catalan cities have been built was driven by Convergència i Unió, in the eighties, and they were much braver. For example, when Josep Maria Cullell was Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Works with Jordi Pujol, the Institut Català del Sòl was created, and legislation was enacted so that its function would be to “promote the necessary actions, both in organizational and functional aspects, to allow the use of land in accordance with the general interest and to prevent speculation and promote the effectiveness of the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing”. With this instrument, the Generalitat and some city councils that were of the same school bought large sectors of land to turn them into good neighborhoods today: Fontajau in Girona, the Eixample of Martorell, Mas Lluí in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Parc de l’Alba in Cerdanyola... and so many others. Afterwards, in 1996, still with Jordi Pujol at the helm, the law on registration and deposit of deposits was enacted, intended to boost the urban rental market and provide adequate information on the situation of the rental housing stock. It was then determined that the deposit of deposits would be used for public housing construction without this having to compromise public budgets, solely relying on there being a consistently positive balance between cancellations and refunds. Taxes are the basic instrument for guaranteeing redistribution and, therefore, equity within a democratic society, but lowering taxes for everyone equally may not be egalitarian. Several studies show that providing incentives to further promote homeownership only helps to increase inequalities. The OECD, in a recent report on housing and taxes, concludes that the tax deduction for mortgage interest has proven to be regressive and ineffective, because those who own a home have access to capital and stability that renters do not have.

Thousands of people participated this midday in the demonstration called by UGT and CCOO in Barcelona for Worker's Day, the central event of the day of protests in Catalonia. The Urban Guard put the participation in the protest at 2,500 people, while the organizers estimated there were between 10,000 and 15,000. Workers have mobilized spurred by international geopolitical instability and the electoral calendar in the State.

Beyond petty politics and party strategies (in Junts they must be very sure of where they are going, voting what they vote), any debate about housing should start from this principle: people's right to decent housing is superior and must prevail over other rights, such as private property and its monetary exploitation. We can make it even broader: as a general principle, where individual rights collide with the common good, it is the individual right that must recede. Never the common good or society's interest. In a housing emergency, an individual —be it an individual, a real estate company, or an investment fund— does not have the "right" to speculate on rental and sale prices of homes. In a climate crisis, no one has the "right" to destroy the environment in the name of economic productivity, nor to question scientific evidence without valid arguments. In an epidemic, or pandemic, no one has the "right" not to get vaccinated, unless they assume that their decision endangers the health and lives of those around them (and they are indifferent to it). These are just a few examples.Some will call the previous paragraph communist, but it is not: it is simple social democracy and the welfare state, as we understood them not so long ago. The principle is simple: for societies to advance, they must do so collectively. If only a few benefit and many are harmed, there is no progress: there is regression. Illiberal, or turbo-capitalist, discourses are not an evolution of classical liberalism, but its degradation. The market, by itself, does not put everyone in their place, especially when the market is doped, inflated, and falsified in favor of very specific and describable interests. The retraction of democracy reveals another project, a new order conceived and commanded by global oligarchs with local servants in each country, imposing on rulers and populations a kind of natural selection based on money. This is nothing new in human history, but if for some decades we have prided ourselves on the West being the most advanced zone on the planet, it was precisely because we had worked in the opposite direction to all this.Trying to anchor this ideology in the figure of the good Catalan (or the good Mallorcan) who has worked his whole life like a beast and now has the right to do whatever he wants with the houses and apartments he has inherited from his grandparents, or that he has bought by speculating, is, to say the least, an indecent falsehood. Catalonia, precisely, has been a pioneer for having been a country built on the firm idea (and this one, indeed, liberal) of wealth distribution and collective improvement. In Mallorca, this idea has never existed, and that is why it is drowning in mass tourism with no alternatives in sight (and selling the grandparents' houses and apartments to the highest bidder, which curiously are vulture funds). The right to decent housing, let's repeat it, must prevail over the right to property.

The Spanish government was forced to divide aid for the war in the Middle East into two parts. The first, with tax rebates on fuel, among other aspects, had already been validated by Congress. But the opposition from Junts has derailed the second decree, the one on housing, which among other measures proposed extending rental contracts that were nearing their end by two years and a cap of 2% on rent increases.

The Spanish government was forced to divide aid for the war in the Middle East into two parts. The first, with tax rebates on fuels, among other aspects, was already validated by Congress. But the opposition from Junts has derailed the second decree, that of housing, which among other measures proposed extending rental contracts that reached their term by two years and a cap of 2% on rent increases.

Junts has assured that it will vote against the housing decree that will be debated this Tuesday in Congress, as reported by 'El País' and confirmed by the ACN. Last week, Carles Puigdemont's party proposed a deduction on mortgages and rents to "give air to the middle class" and assured that the Spanish government had the possibility of withdrawing the royal decree. Consulted sources recall that the decree going to the plenary session cannot be modified and that in this way they cannot endorse it. "Our housing policies have been made clear," they point out, recalling that there are also pending issues such as the reduction of fees for the self-employed.

Two housing measures hang by a thread: the extraordinary extension of rental contracts ending between March 22, 2026, and December 31, 2027, and the limitation of the annual update of contracts to 2% to avoid inflation hikes due to the war in the Middle East. Both proposals are included in the Spanish government's decree to address, precisely, the economic shock of the war on housing, particularly on rents, and which the Congress votes on this Tuesday. Nothing suggests, however, that it will prosper.

Tuesday, April 28, we have a lot at stake as a society. On this day, Congress will decide whether to approve the extension of rental contracts, a measure that could prevent nearly 475,000 tenants in Catalonia, and more than 3 million across the State, with contracts expiring soon, from being forced to leave their homes in the coming months.

Has the rent cap in tense areas stopped price increases? No, of course not. The latest data from the Housing Agency of Catalonia, which is based on deposits made to Incasòl, shows that in Catalonia the average rent price is already higher than before the cap came into effect, in the first quarter of 2024. In the city of Barcelona, the average price still does not exceed that of that moment, but throughout 2025 it has been rising and, if instead of the average price we look at the price per square meter, it already exceeds that of before the cap.

It is not as simple as directly applying economic theory, but it must be taken into account. One of the main ways to ensure that housing ceases to be a luxury good, as it is today – especially in large cities, but also in medium-sized ones, which suffer from the price increase caused by the flight of demand seeking more affordable places to live – is to increase supply. And for this supply to adapt to demand. But this is easier said than done. Having become the main concern of the population, housing is actually a state issue, which all parties should assume.

Catalonia surpassed 8,500 housing mortgages constituted in February for the first time since 2010 and has now accumulated 20 months of year-on-year increases, according to figures updated by the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Friday.

The real estate sector continues to focus on the first ring of Barcelona as an escape valve for the capital's lack of land. RTV Grupo Inmobiliario has announced an approximate investment of 29 million euros for the development of two new residential projects in Sant Adrià de Besòs. The operation, which has been closed with the acquisition of two strategic plots, foresees the construction of 77 units that will transform the Forum area and the La Catalana neighborhood.

The judge investigating the allocation of protected housing in Alicante has summoned 15 people to testify as defendants and seven as witnesses. Among those investigated are the former Councilor for Urban Planning of the city, Rocío Gómez, the head of the Contracting Service of the City Council, María Pérez-Hickman, the municipal architect, Francisco Nieto, the sole administrator of the promoting cooperative, Francisco Ordiñana, and the head of the Protected Housing section of the Department of Housing, Employment, Youth and Equality, Roberto Palencia. The five must testify on May 20.

Maika Granados tried up to three times for a social rental for the ground floor of the Florida neighborhood in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, where she has lived for years with her three children and husband. There was no way for the vulture fund that owned the property or the municipal social services, who had signed "all the vulnerability reports in the world" for her, to heed her pleas. Family income made it impossible to access an apartment on the open market, not even in this neighborhood with a very degraded housing stock: rents already exceed 1,000 euros, and a room, 700.

A good book on housing is by Javier Gil, Generación inquilina, published by Capitán Swing. It is because it is written in plain language and grounds some of the forecasts that Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett had made in the case of post-bubble Spain. The author explains that the contradictions in housing matters in the Western world begin with the neoliberal policies of dispossession of the working class, with a battery of decisions that favored rampant speculation and the preference for the accumulation of wealth, which reversed the trend of stable rents towards the purchase of housing for investment. He connects it with the well-known theses of Thomas Piketty: when housing is an investment good, it becomes inaccessible to the majority and patrimonial income grows above labor income.However, in addition, Gil quantifies the magnitude of the tragedy in Spain: after 2007, investment funds such as Blackstone, Lone Star, Oaktree, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs or Cerberus bought hundreds of thousands of homes from Spanish banks. Blackstone, Cerberus and Lone Star alone acquired 450,000 homes in Spain in a few operations. The giant Blackstone has bought large volumes of apartments in Spain, while in the rest of the world it has more diversified assets. This deserves a study, because, simultaneously, many local developers have been lost.Meanwhile, the State allocated 72 billion to the bailout of banks, and 51 billion for the creation of Sareb. Gil asks an important question: what would have happened if the largest mobilization of public funds in history had been used to buy the homes obtained through evictions?

Sumar has initiated a round of contacts to secure sufficient support to validate the extension of rental agreements, which is to be voted on in Congress on April 28. This is an essential step for the decree-law approved by the Spanish government following the Iran war on housing matters to remain in force. Yolanda Díaz's party assures that negotiations are open with Junts and they see "water in the pool," but Míriam Nogueras's party is by no means in line with this: they maintain their 'no' to the extension of rental agreements and have presented an alternative in housing policies to address the crisis generated by the conflict in the Middle East, which directly clashes with what the Spanish government is doing. The Junts members, therefore, would only be open to discussion if the PSOE and Sumar accept their "emergency" measures and withdraw their decree.

In the exhibition Housing the Majorities, Barcelona 1860-2010, curated by Manel Guàrdia and Maribel Roselló, from the Barcelona Housing Museum, the MUHBA's headquarters in the old low-cost housing of Bon Pastor, a poster from the 60s can be seen from a construction company showing multiple residential developments on a map of Barcelona. The poster is titled “Pisos pisos pisos pisos” (Flats flats flats flats) and largely hints at how the response to the problem of access to housing and shantytowns was given from the late 1950s through the Social Urgency Plan of Barcelona of 1958. This plan, focused on the maximum production of "flats" possible in the cheapest way (through the so-called

For the first time in more than two years of conflict, the foreign fund New Amsterdam Developers (NAD) is opening up to dialogue in the face of the crisis in the Sant Agustí street block, which it intends to use for co-housing. The ombudsman of Barcelona, David Bondia, announced this Friday that the fund has asked the court to postpone the eviction of Txema Escorsa, which was to be attempted again this Wednesday after neighborhood "pressure" managed to halt a first eviction three weeks ago.