Cities with purpose: more affordable housing

Barcelona starts 2025 with many resolutions, but surely the most relevant is to make more housing available to citizens, and at an affordable price. Cities not only have to be functional, safe, and efficient, but they also have to respond to the challenges and needs of their residents. It is one thing to talk about cities with purpose at a theoretical level, those that prioritize people's well-being, sustainability, and social justice, and another to bring these desires into reality, and this is not so easy.

To begin with, cities cannot solve the housing problem alone; this fact must be accepted. Secondly, all cities expel inhabitants and welcome new ones; it is the law of the market. Thirdly, public initiative cannot cover the existing housing demand, and collaboration with private enterprise is essential.

Therefore, the will and commitment of the Illa Government to a massive construction of affordable housing is good news. The problem, in my opinion, is the production capacity. Moving from purpose to fact. The excess of regulations excessively complicates this massive production of housing, which should be much more agile than it currently is. It makes no sense that, from the availability of the plot, it takes up to four years to hand over the keys to the apartment.

The emergency of access to housing requires a collective public and private effort that depends not only on governmental intervention but also on the active participation of citizens. Having stable legislation on urban leases is fundamental for tenants and landlords, as well as guaranteeing the protection of housing against possible occupations. Guaranteeing an adequate legal and fiscal environment for companies promoting affordable housing must be part of the solution. Involving private operators and developers in the purpose means generating adequate, non-speculative conditions, so that they can recover their investment and have some return.

To move from purpose to reality will require a lot of flexibility and a lot of consensus on the measures to be activated. This means withdrawing measures that have not had the desired impact, such as the 30% affordable housing reserve in new developments; rehabilitations in consolidated urban land, and activating measures such as tax incentives for young people accessing their first home. Cities with purpose are called to action here and now.