In those areas of the city with little affordable housing supply and where, in addition, there is no municipal land available to build on, the City Council chooses to acquire apartment blocks when it detects that they go on sale at a good price through the right of first refusal and redemption. "The purchase of entire properties is absolutely essential to achieve the dispersion and capillarity of affordable housing in all neighborhoods," defends the Housing Councilor, Lucía Martín. With this objective, the consistory has just approved the acquisition of two blocks in Ciutat Vella and Sant Martí, which will add 25 social rental homes to the offer of the Catalan capital.
The property in Ciutat Vella is located on Jaume Giralt street, one of those that delimit the Pou de la Figuera, known as the Forat de la Vergonya, a space that accumulates a long history of degradation and insecurity. The apartment block that the City Council has acquired had been evicted after multiple conflicts and neighborhood complaints, and had been empty ever since. It has 15 homes in good condition, which will be delivered in the coming months under a rental regime. It also has two premises, which will be dedicated to local economic activities. The purchase of the apartments has been accompanied by the transfer to the neighbors of an adjoining plot of 100 square meters. In the case of the Sant Martí block, on Navas de Tolosa street, there are ten homes, three of which are empty. The rest of the tenants will remain in their apartments with social rental prices.
The purchase of both properties has been made for a combined price of almost five million euros. The one in Forat de la Vergonya was obtained for 3.5 million euros, a price 14% below market price, while the one in Sant Martí was for 1.4 million euros, 44.5% less.
With these two operations, the City Council has exceeded 1,300 flats purchased to be used for social housing in this term and the previous one. In Ada Colau's first term, the figure rose to 700 homes, a strategy that was reinforced from 2018 with the declaration of the entire city as a pre-emption and redemption area. All in all, since 2015, the council has accumulated an investment of more than 150 million euros in the acquisition of more than 40 entire properties. "This policy is not seen in any other city in the State in such a forceful way," Martín remarks. In 2021, Barcelona closed the year with a record in housing purchases, having acquired a total of 13 properties with about 380 flats and having disbursed close to 60 million euros.