One of the most emblematic Christmas movies has always been, How wonderful it is to liveThe tender story of a man, George Bailey, who runs a kind of savings bank with a cooperative to build homes for the poor, and who is besieged by the town's richest man, Mr. Potter, whose dream is for the town to bear his name, Pottersville, for everything to be his, and for the poor to live in destitution. Frank Capra's film represents values, within the framework of humane capitalism, similar to those of... A Christmas Carol Dickens. Social responsibility, humility, empathy for the disadvantaged. Pottersville, which resonates ever more strongly in the present, is, on the other hand, the great metaphor for unfettered capitalism and inhumanity.

The promise of Salvador Isla of having built 50,000 homes in Catalonia by 2030, along with the reinstatement of the tripartite Barris Plan, raises expectations and questions. Obviously, he will have to serve another term as president to achieve this. Housing policies are not improvised and require at least a decade.

Sarah Kumnig is a housing policy expert and professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The Austrian capital has the largest public housing stock in Europe. Rents for these public apartments are around €8 per square meter. This is half of what you have to pay in Barcelona, ​​where the price is over €16 per square meter.

It's been a matter of days: from unknown to front page. She began to tentatively emerge in this analysis last week, until this morning she landed on our front page and on the front page of every newspaper.

The best thing about writing is that it forces you to read more. I'm fortunate that architect Marta Cervelló, author of important books and publications and Josep Lluís Mateo's right-hand woman for many years, left me a wonderful little book she bought in London, which has allowed me to learn a story I'll use to address an important architectural dilemma.

At the beginning of March, the press echoed the criticism of the Catalan government by Foment del Treball and the Association of Developers and Builders (APCE) for the agreements signed on housing. These agreements related to registration and taxes for large landowners, the extension of the right of first refusal and redemption, and others. The criticism criticized the restriction on the free market and claimed it was intended to protect the prospects of the real estate business. However, the angry tone and arguments employed were unusual, as these associations dared to recommend to the government, calling him ignorant, that he would not listen to the proposals of ERC and the Comuns, to finally demand that the voice of the "true professionals of the sector" be taken into account.

There is a broad political and social consensus that the housing crisis is a priority. We are facing a housing crisis. The increase in population—in twenty years, we have gone from 6 to 8 million inhabitants—and the tourism and services sectors have put maximum pressure on the housing market. Prices are skyrocketing, both for purchase and rental. Young people in particular are finding it very difficult to move out. The average age at which people leave home is 30, well above the European average. The housing problem is very serious in Barcelona and its entire metropolitan area, but in reality it is already affecting the whole of Catalonia, with many small and medium-sized cities also facing difficult situations. Just look at the case of El Vendrell that we explain today, a city that has doubled its population in two decades and is already beginning to gentrify its residents.

The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, has promised to build 50,000 public housing units in Catalonia by 2030. But behind the large figures, some questions arise. One of them is whether the administration has the capacity to manage all this public housing stock. Over the last four months, ARA has visited around forty developments run by the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Housing and Renovation (IMHAB), totaling more than 2,800 apartments. This sample highlights some of the problems with this public housing offering: empty apartments and parking; headaches with the construction and maintenance of buildings; and difficulties in managing the common day-to-day conflicts of residents.

This weekend, in the dossier, we focus on the challenge of managing public housing. ARA visited around forty developments belonging to the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Housing and Renovation (IMHAB), totaling around 2,800 apartments. The selection represents a small sample of the municipal public housing stock as a whole.

The Catalan Housing Agency has released a figure on Wednesday that illustrates the housing crisis in Catalonia. Between 2021 and 2022, the administration only covered 4% of the requests for access to its housing stock. In this period, the Register of Applicants for Officially Protected Housing had an average of 85,600 registered, while an annual average of 3,450 homes were assigned. These are the most recent data available, according to the report of the Sindicatura de Comptes de Catalunya.

There is already a balance of one of the most controversial regulations promoted by the municipal government of Ada Colau. In December 2018, thanks to votes from Barcelona en Comú, ERC, PSC and CUP, the Barcelona City Council approved a modification of the General Metropolitan Plan to force large developers to allocate 30% of new buildings to social housing. According to the text, this reserve of 30% of housing only has to be applied when the new housing development (or the complete refurbishment of existing housing) occupies an area of over 600 square metres in consolidated urban land. The aim was that it would only affect big constructors.