Concern over housing in Barcelona breaks records

BarcelonaThe housing problem continues to spiral out of control in Barcelona. At least, that's how its citizens feel. The Barcelona City Council's municipal services survey, released this Friday, shows how, in a short time, concern about housing has skyrocketed among the city's most serious problems. 20.8% of respondents consider it the main headache for the Catalan capital, 8.5 points more than just a year ago. This exponential growth brings concern about housing to the highest level ever recorded in this survey, which has been conducted since 1989.

However, housing is not yet the city's number one problem for Barcelona residents – which is already the case in the municipal barometer, with a smaller sample size. In the case of the municipal services survey, the majority of citizens who responded to the questionnaire continue to consider security to be the main problem facing the Catalan capital. 26.5% place it at the top of their list of problems, one point less than a year ago. However, by district, Ciutat Vella stands out, where 45.6% consider insecurity to be the area's main problem.

However, when respondents are asked about their most serious personal problem—not that of the city as a whole—housing takes the lead. 16.1% respond that this is their main headache, compared to 13% who choose insecurity. A year ago, in the previous wave of the municipal services survey, the situation was reversed. Insecurity topped the list with 14%, ahead of housing, which was second with 10.7% of responses.

Given these data, the First Deputy Mayor, Laia Bonet, praised the work done by Jaume Collboni's government to guarantee "the right of Barcelona residents to remain in the city." In this regard, he highlighted measures such as declaring the entire city a stressed area to cap rental prices, the announcement of the elimination of all tourist apartments in Barcelona, and efforts to achieve a production of 1,000 subsidized housing units each year.

The decline in Catalan continues.

The survey also consolidates another of the dynamics that the Catalan capital has been showing for some time: the decline of Catalan as their habitual language. If only 36% of respondents said they regularly spoke Catalan a year ago, this time the figure has dropped another point, falling to 35%. This is the lowest figure since the survey began in 1989. Back then, 49% of Barcelona residents chose Catalan as their habitual language. The use of Spanish (55%) also decreased by one point, while the number of Barcelona residents who regularly use other languages now stands at 10%, two points more than last year.

Regarding the perception of Barcelona's progress, pessimism continues to prevail among those surveyed. Forty-seven percent believe the city is worse off than a year ago, while 30% believe it has improved. However, the City Council sought to cast the data in a positive light, emphasizing that those who believe Barcelona is doing better have increased by two percentage points compared to the previous year, while critics remain stable. City Council also emphasizes that at the beginning of the mandate, 54% of those who viewed it worse off were affected.

However, the municipal services survey also shows a slight improvement in opinion on municipal management, which with a score of 6.4, two-tenths more than a year ago, achieves the highest rating since 2018. recognizing". The deputy mayor also highlighted that those surveyed rate their satisfaction with living in Barcelona at 7.5.

The results of the survey – the most extensive conducted by the City Council – were obtained through 6,000 face-to-face interviews conducted between February 10 and May 7 with people who had been living in the city for at least six months.