Barcelona is accelerating its efforts to find a solution to speculative housing purchases

With housing long a top priority for Catalan authorities, a new approach has emerged in recent weeks to address a problem plaguing the country's major cities. The Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) and Barcelona City Council have opened the door to studying measures to limit speculative housing purchases. This path is now accelerating in the Catalan capital. Barring any unexpected turn of events, the Urban Planning Committee will approve, at the request of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the creation of a study commission this Tuesday to analyze how to prevent "purchases for speculative purposes" in the city. This commission, similar to those already established during this term on access to housing and the promotion of Catalan among young people, will analyze the experiences of other countries and cities in this area and will study "in depth" the regulatory options available to the City Council. The goal is to follow the path opened by the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB), which, in a report by urban planning law expert Pablo Feu, defended the feasibility of limiting home purchases when they are not intended as the buyer's primary residence. In statements to ARA, the leader of Esquerra in the City Council, Elisenda Alamany, argues that the commission "must develop the best tools" to limit speculative housing purchases, a regulation she considers "essential." "We cannot stand idly by while investment funds and foreign billionaires buy up the homes that Barcelona residents need to live in," she adds, arguing that citizens need to find "a clear and effective response from the institutions" to their main problem. In January, the Urban Planning Commission approved a proposal from ERC—with votes also from the PSC and Barcelona en Comú—in which the municipal government committed to studying whether there are legal tools to prohibit foreigners from buying apartments in the city unless it is for themselves or a direct family member to live in. The text stipulates that the council will "study promoting the tools" so that this prohibition also extends to all investment funds. However, there have been no developments so far. The full council's endorsement

The creation of this commission comes ten days after the plenary session, with votes from the PSC, ERC, and Barcelona en Comú, approved a motion from the latter party in which the municipal government committed to developing "the necessary urban planning instruments" to limit speculative property purchases in the city. Despite voting in favor of the measure, both the PSC and ERC expressed skepticism at the time about the City Council's ability to implement the regulation on its own. On October 22, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, also opened the door from the Catalan Parliament to prohibiting speculative property purchases and explained that he had asked the Minister of Housing, Silvia Paneque, to study the matter.