The lack of state investment since 2013, inequality in access to housing and the rehabilitation of the public park have focused the debate of experts
The Barcelona Housing and Rehabilitation Forum (FHAR) has started its fourth edition with a day where the current state of Barcelona’s housing has been put on the table, a topic that is one of the first concerns among citizens and, as highlighted, also begins to be for the administrations.
“Dwelling is the subject that, at the moment, occupies more efforts of the government of Barcelona”, assured in this sense the mayor of the city, Jaume Collboni, who has been in charge of inaugurating the day. A presentation in which he has ensured that the administration must intervene in the market to respond to problems to which it has not been able to self-regulate, with measures such as the regulation of rent or the declaration of a tensioned area that, in 2028, will allow the recovery of 10,000 homes for residential use that currently have a tourist license.
This increase in the interest of public administrations for housing has also been celebrated by the economist and founding partner of Promo Assessors Consultors, Agustí Jover, who in his speech has clearly identified one of the main origins of the lack of public park in Catalonia: the lack of funding by the state since 2013, which caused more than 5,200 annual protected homes to be produced until 2012, to 1,196 on average between 2013 and 2023, losing 75% of the volume of production.
Given this situation, and despite the effort of the Generalitat that has allocated 0.7% of its budget between 2013 and 2023 to housing (above 0.24% of the state), Jover has pointed out public-private collaboration as the way to provide solutions, where the administration ensures a stable legal framework to attract private investment and where the fiscal policy of rental housing is reviewed.
Pla Viure, key to the most immediate future of the city
Joan Ramon Riera, Housing Commissioner at the Barcelona City Council, was in charge of presenting the Pla Viure plan, the City Council’s strategic roadmap to solve the city’s housing problems.
A problem led by high prices, the result of a market strained by the lack of supply, by the growth in tourism demand, by the increase in demographics of migratory origin with immediate housing needs, and by a cultural change with new models of smaller families, which require more housing units.
This high price causes the housing problem not only to affect people at risk of vulnerability, but the entire middle class. A situation, in which the Pla Viure plan wants to promote actions such as land activation, the increase of public resources that, at the same time, serves to create alliances and attract greater private investment or the commitment to the rehabilitation and improvement of the existing housing stock.
In addition to these measures, the Pla Viure plan has a clear objective: to deliver 4,000 homes protected by mandate. This has been pointed out by Ivan Gallardo, head of the Department of Promotion of Protected Housing of the Barcelona City Council, who together with Núria Colomer, Founding Partner of Celobert, have been in charge of the presentation related to housing participation models where the need for citizen and political participation in the identification of needs and the definition of effective strategies such as in the City Council Housing plan has been highlighted.
Administration, builders and third sector debate on the future of housing
The FHAR, as the architect and journalist Núria Moliner, in charge of driving the entire Forum, has highlighted, is a space to stop and think about how to face the challenge that everyone has access to decent housing.
This has been precisely the subject of debate between Jordi Mas, General Director of Housing of the Generalitat de Catalunya; Josep Antoni Martínez, president of the Guild of the Construction of Barcelona and the counties; and Carme Trilla, president of the Habitat3 Foundation and the Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona.
A debate in which the Government of Catalonia’s Plan 50,000, which aims to promote this amount of affordable rental housing in the next 5 years, has played a major role; but where there has also been talk of the high cost of land and the need to differentiate between the causes of the housing problem (those that make the market stress) and the consequences (increasing prices that make it inaccessible for many families).
Rehabilitation of the public park: key for communities in precarious situation
The rehabilitation of the houses has focused the final part of the first day with two discussion tables where the importance of these actions to guarantee a park in good condition has been highlighted.
In the first one, moderated by journalist Oriol Carreras, different strategies have been put on the table in terms of rehabilitation, which improve areas such as energy efficiency, sustainability or accessibility; as well as the role of Next Generation funds in the financing of these projects.
Anna M. Font, from the Barcelona City Council; Montserrat Prado, from the Municipal Institute of Urban Landscape: Jordi Sanuy, from the Housing Agency of Catalonia and Celestí Ventura, from the College of Technical Architecture of Barcelona.
The second table focused on the debate on rehabilitation in vulnerable environments, where the poor condition of buildings (due to their antiquity or low constructive quality), joins an economic, social and cultural reality that does not always favor intervention. In this sense, examples have been given not only of the problems presented, but also of the accompaniment provided in these cases by the administrations.
Sara Gasull, from IMHAB; Marta Martínez; from the Housing Agency of Catalonia; Àlex Montes, from Foment de Ciutat and Glòria Viladrich, from the Municipal Institute of Urbanism, participated in this table; moderated by the architect Núria Pedrals.