Significantly multiply the supply with a large production of new affordable housing. This is the solution proposed by Barcelona Global to end the problem of access to housing in the metropolitan region. However, why is this seemingly obvious solution not applied? What does its implementation depend on? Is there enough land available? According to the association chaired by Maite Barrera, with the approved urban plans, it is possible to promote the construction of more than 25,000 flats in the metropolitan area of Barcelona in 5 years. It only takes promoters and Administrations to get to work to do so and, for this reason, they demand the urgent activation of an Acceleration Plan that allows all these homes to emerge and redirect a problem that, according to Barrera, "seriously harms the well-being of citizens and the competitiveness of Barcelona."
"The difficulties of access to affordable housing in the Barcelona area are a massive social problem that needs to be solved with large numbers, that is, with the construction of large volumes of flats. The good thing is that we can do it, because it is not true that there is no land available. The land is there, but we have to get to it. It is a matter of executive will and, for this reason, we call for mobilizing everything that is already planned," explains Jaume Oliu, a member of the executive committee of Barcelona Global and one of the coordinators of the team of 56 partners of the entity who have worked for six months on the Challenge to find solutions to the metropolitan housing challenge.
According to Oliu, CEO of Raset Ventures, the urban plans approved by the different municipalities already foresee allocating 50% of the land to affordable housing. Thus, 50% of the 25,000 flats that could be built in 5 years in different areas of Baix Llobregat, Barcelonès and Vallès Occidental could have this qualification if there was really a will to increase the supply. Specifically, Barcelona Global's work refers to the Urban Master Plan (PDU) of Baix Llobregat, which includes eleven strategic residential areas (ARE) where 15,924 homes can be built, and other PDUs such as that of the Cerdanyola del Vallès Directional Center (5,377 homes), the Tres Xemeneies of Sant Adrià de Besòs (1,783 homes), the Estrella and Sant Crist AREs of Badalona and the Can Duran ARE of Moncada i Reixac, which foresees more than 2,000 flats.
In Barcelona city, the remaining land plots for housing development are concentrated in the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood, around the new La Sagrera station, on the grounds of the former Mercedes factory, and in some blocks of the 22@ district.
"It is urgent to activate an affordable housing acceleration plan and place it among the top priorities of the public agenda. We call for fostering public-private collaboration because there is a lot of public land that can be developed through concessions or surface rights. However, processes must be streamlined, sped up, procedures and the regulatory framework simplified, and there must be proactive management by the Administration," Oliu emphasized.
The concept of affordable housing, which is different from social housing, refers to the financial effort citizens must make, that is, the portion of family income that must be allocated each month to pay for housing. In this sense, housing is considered affordable when it requires less than 30% of the household's disposable income. However, in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, it is estimated that around 39% of the population allocates more than 40% of their income to housing expenses, and therefore, we are facing a "serious social problem" that needs to be urgently redirected. The president of Barcelona Global has warned that this crisis could worsen and will increase, as it is estimated that by 2050 the demand for new construction primary residences in the metropolitan area will rise to 475,000 units.
"We are facing a structural problem that affects the well-being of the entire population and the competitiveness of the city and its area of influence," states the Barcelona Global Challenge, in which experts such as Carme Trilla (Fundació Habitat 3), Anna Gener (Savills), Enric Batlle (Batlle i Roig), and Pau Pérez de Acha (Sareb) participated, along with executives from multiple companies and entities related to the sector such as Housfy, Culmia, Amat Immobiliaris, Sogeviso, La Llave de Oro, Conren Tramway, Colonial, Meridia Capial, Guinot Prunera, APCE, CBRE, Garrigues or Cushman & Wakefield.
"We are facing a structural problem that affects the well-being of the entire population and the competitiveness of the city and its area of influence"To redirect this situation, Barcelona Global asks the Administrations to act with a metropolitan vision and plan in a consensual way tolong term to ensure that new housing production is continuous over time.They urge to carry out a proactive management that allows streamlining and shortening the procedures of the urban planning process, as well as to execute a continuous review of the economic viability of the planning, and a work to identify disused land suitable for residential use.
Commitment to industrialized construction and greater connectivity
They emphasize that public-private collaboration is key to obtaining affordable housing in an adequate quantity and, therefore, a framework of legal and fiscal stability is necessary and "to provide a balanced and at the same time interesting business model for private capital." At this point, they urge to "prioritize private intervention in land management and to simplify procedures," as well as to establish a tax system that "promotes the greatest available supply, especially for rent." Another recommendation is to bet on industrialized construction, which allows reducing construction times and environmental impact. Barcelona Global also states the need to activate the lever for improving metropolitan connectivity, investing in an efficient public transport system that connects the metropolitan area with Maresme, Vallès, Garraf and Penedès and favors the so-called "45-minute city".
Barcelona Global totally rejects the theses that argue that the city's commitment to attracting international talent is the cause of the excessive increase in prices and the lack of affordable housing. They recall that in the last biennial survey carried out by the association, the Talent International Monitor, already showed that expats suffer the same problems as the local population to buy or rent an apartment and that housing is also one of their main concerns. "The volume of expats is very small in relation to the massive problem we are talking about and which affects 40% of the population. This situation, clearly, cannot be the fault of digital nomads," says Jaume Oliu.
"Reducing the problem and looking for culprits in the city's new residents is a terrifying mistake, because that talent generates wealth and new opportunities for society as a whole," emphasizes Anna Gener. For Maite Barrera, "we must break the image" that all expats earn a lot of money, since their salaries are mostly the same as those earned by local talent. "The average salary of the more than one thousand people who have participated in the Talent International Monitor is 50,000 euros," she recalls.
"We call for action to generate the necessary framework of trust between public administrations and private agents to guarantee a basic right of the population"For her part, Carme Trilla denounces the two anomalies that have most driven up rents in Barcelona: the price charged for rooms and the "misuse" of seasonal rentals, where there is "an alteration in the application of the law." The expert advocates for the urgent application of regulations that allow these two major "problematic foci" to be resolved.
"We call for action to generate the necessary framework of trust between public administrations and private agents to guarantee a basic right of the population," concludes Barcelona Global, which urges the Administration to consider housing "as a country's infrastructure," just as healthcare and the educational system are. "Solving this problem is not a utopia or an entelechy, it is possible to do it, but we need this acceleration plan," they remark.
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