At the gates of elections that will revolve around housing, the Spanish government is boasting about the construction of subsidized housing (HPO) during the first half of the year and speaks of "accelerated growth". The administrations as a whole – central, regional, and local – have begun to build 70% more apartments than in the same period last year. However, in absolute numbers, these are 13,942 homes, 20% compared to the 67,500 that have been promoted for the free market.

Junts currently occupies all the headlines for its no to the housing decrees, despite the fact that all other parties have been swallowing toads to approve a text that alleviates the serious situation suffered by many families. Affordable housing will not arrive without policy, and yesterday I started reading Vida y obra de Ildefonso Cerdá, written by Fabià Estapé, to understand what allowed the city of Barcelona to resolve serious public health issues and urbanize the Barcelona Plan around 1850. The works of Pedro Felipe Monlau, Joaquin Salarich and José Font Mosela, as well as the fifteen hundred pages of the Teoria General d’Urbanització, managed to objectify the living conditions of the day laborers confined within the walls of Barcelona. Cerdà's Eixample took decades to consolidate, due to the continuous conflicts of interest between property rights and the easements of the general plan. But there were clear objectives, and the very implementation of the streets overcame the controversies and constant boycotts from multiple fronts.

The 50,000 Plan is the great promise of Salvador Illa's government. Two years after the announcement of the measure, the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, assured, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio this Friday, that there are "practically" 10,000 apartments "finished," and that 28,000 more are "in projection." The data, however, do not coincide with those held by Catalan builders, who confirm that "there are only 3,000 apartments put out to tender and awarded", in the words of the president of the Chamber of Construction Contractors of Catalonia (CCOC), Lluís Moreno, this same Friday in the ARA.

Catalan construction companies have stated that the Generalitat has only put out to tender 3,000 flats from the famous Plan 50,000, thus qualifying what the President of the Government, Salvador Illa, said, who said there were 31,041 "underway" during an intervention in Parliament in October. Furthermore, they have warned that "none are finished". The Catalan executive committed to incorporate 50,000 affordable rental flats into the market, which are to be built by 2030.

The testimonies of companies that chose to set up in Aragon and not in Catalonia after the pandemic caused a lot of controversy and reached Parliament. “The political and technical agility of the Aragonese government is brutal: if you call them, they are already receiving you within 48 hours, and they move very quickly,” explained the representative of a company to ARA. “Between opening a warehouse in Lleida or opening it in Fraga, which is right next door, there is a big difference in advantages,” assured another person.

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.