Barcelona reinforces public housing stock and adds nearly 300 homes

Guaranteeing the right to housing has become one of the great challenges for European cities, and Barcelona is no exception. In a context of sustained real estate pressure, with high prices and increasing access difficulties, the City Council has placed housing at the center of the public agenda through the Pla Viure, the strategy that organizes and promotes municipal policies in this area under a clear motto: We prioritize housing.

The Pla Viure is structured around three main axes: universalizing the right to housing, rehabilitating and improving the existing stock with criteria of sustainability, accessibility and comfort, and addressing social vulnerability, the demographic challenge and the different life stages of citizens. Within this framework, the first axis —the expansion of the public housing stock— is key to making the right to live in the city effective.

Build, rehabilitate… and buy

To achieve this goal, the City Council not only builds new housing or rehabilitates existing buildings. It also home purchase at market price, a policy that has consolidated itself as a structural tool to increase the public housing stock, protect affordable housing, and prevent speculative dynamics in particularly stressed neighborhoods.

Since the city council initiated this acquisition policy, more than 1,600 homes have been incorporated into the city's public housing stock. In 2025 alone, the different closed operations will add 296 new apartments, a figure that exemplifies the growing scale of this line of action and its weight within the Pla Viure.

A key year: almost 300 more homes in the municipal stock

Throughout 2025, the Barcelona City Council has closed a set of operations that include the direct purchase of homes, the exercise of the right of first refusal and retraction, and the acquisition of plots that will allow the generation of public housing in the future. In total, 97 already built homes have been acquired, three plots with the capacity to generate up to 119 new apartments, and a strategic property —that of Via Laietana 8-10—, where nearly 700 municipal officials will work, and which will free up five municipal dependencies (Avinyó 7, 15 and 32, Ciutat, 3 and Paradís, 14), which will be rehabilitated to be transformed into 80 more homes.

These operations have involved an investment of 21.71 million euros during 2025 solely in housing purchases. To this amount must be added the investment of 4.89 million euros in three plots and the 22.35 million euros of the Via Laietana 8-10 operation, for a total investment of 48.95 million euros in 2025. A record figure that raises the total investment in acquisitions to 44 million euros since the beginning of the mandate. The evolution is significant: in 2023, 13 million were allocated to buy 105 apartments, and in 2024, 9 million to acquire 36.

Homes distributed throughout the city

One of the main characteristics of this purchasing policy is its territorial distribution, with operations in different neighborhoods and districts of Barcelona. Among the acquired homes are:

• 26 flats in Casa Orsola, on Consell de Cent and Calàbria streets, a joint operation with Fundació Hàbitat3 that allowed stopping eviction processes and guaranteeing the continuity of tenants. 11 homes in Alió passage, 21, in the Camp d'en Grassot i Gràcia Nova neighborhood. 10 flats on València street, 419, in the Eixample. 4 homes on Llull street, 181, and 8 on Garrofers street, 40, acquired through the exercise of the right of first refusal associated with the 30% reservation in new developments. 38 flats bought from the real estate company Building Center, owned by CaixaBank, distributed in several neighborhoods of the city.

These acquisitions are joined by land operations, such as the purchase of the plot of land atEscolpai Càncer street, 19,in Torre Baró —the first direct acquisition from SAREB and where 61 homes will be built—; the consolidation of municipal ownership of the plot on the streetRoc Boronat, 75,in Poblenou, to build 14 homes; as well as in theJuan de Sada Street, in the Sants-Badal neighborhood, to build 44 new homes

Exercise all powers, add alliances

Housing purchase operations are framed within two central elements of the Pla Viure narrative. On the one hand, the maximum deployment of the municipal competence framework, with instruments such as the 30% reserve, pre-emption and retraction, or the mobilization of undivided assets. On the other hand, collaboration between administrations, public agents, private and social agents, as exemplified by the purchase of assets from SAREB or joint purchase formulas with social entities.

A paradigmatic case is that of Casa Orsola, where the City Council applied an innovative and exceptional formula that allowed preserving the residential use of the building and protecting the residents. This type of operation shows how the acquisition policy goes beyond adding housing: it also serves to stabilize communities and guarantee roots.

A new ordinance to facilitate future purchases

In December 2025, the Plenary Council definitively approved the new ordinance on the right of first refusal and redemption, a key tool to reinforce this policy in the coming years. The regulation provides more legal certainty to all agents involved, expands the possibilities of collaboration with entities and neighbors, and allows for more effective action in areas where urban density makes the construction of new housing unfeasible.

With the new ordinance, the City Council can transfer the right of first refusal to third parties—such as non-profit entities or the legal occupants themselves—or exercise it jointly, opening the door to more flexible models adapted to each reality.

Looking to 2027: a shared goal

The purchasing policy is one of the pieces that must allow achieving the aspirational goal of the Pla Viure: reaching the15,000 public homes by 2027. A challenge that can only be addressed by combining all available avenues: construction of new developments, rehabilitation of the existing stock, and acquisition of housing from the market.

Together, these actions outline a city strategy that understands housing as an essential social infrastructure. Prioritizing housing, in short, is to ensure that Barcelona continues to be a livable, diverse, and accessible city for all.

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