The creation of housing in Catalonia reaches its maximum since 2008 with 17,400 flats

Catalunya faces the coming years with the best projected new housing figure of the last decade. This is confirmed by data from the College of Architects of Catalunya (Coac), which during 2024 has authorized projects totaling 17,429 homes, 10% more than the previous year and the highest figure since 2008, when the crisis caused housing to fall from 34,500 to 12,500 annually.

Despite this increase, the figure is well below the 25,000 homes that the Agència Catalana de l'Habitatge considers necessary for the 2020-2024 period, as recalled by the dean of Coac, Guillem Costa, along with the general director of the College, Sònia Oliveras, and the head of its technical area, Gerard Miquel.

Of these 17,429 new homes that will be built in Catalunya based on projects approved by Coac, 2,883 will be subsidized housing, as highlighted by Oliveras. However, administrations are not obliged to process public housing projects through the College, so there could be more planned without being recorded in Coac's data.

In the case of Barcelona city, Coac has approved 1,966 newly created homes during 2024, 600 more than the previous year, when there were 1,340. Of these apartments, which are expected to be completed within a period of between one and a half and two years, 525 are promoted by the City Council through the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation of Barcelona (Imhab), in six developments in areas such as Glòries and La Marina del Prat Vermell.

In addition, within the approved projects, another 385 subsidized homes in the city are included within private developments, totaling 910 protected homes in the Catalan capital. Of these, 12 derive from the measure of reserving 30% of new developments for protected housing, which the municipal government is evaluating. Without these 900 homes, 1,066 free-market homes have been approved in Barcelona in 2024, above the 859 in 2023, and the same figure as in 2022.

Beyond the city, and in the case of the Barcelona demarcation, 11,853 homes have been projected this year, 9.5% more than the previous year. Without taking into account the Catalan capital, the municipalities of Barcelona will gain 9,887 homes in the coming years. Among them, municipalities such as Terrassa, Sant Pere de Ribes, and Sabadell stand out, where large developments are being promoted, totaling 1,171 homes in Terrassa, and more than 700 in both Sant Pere de Ribes and Sabadell. This increase in new housing projections is not only registered in Barcelona and its regions, but in most Catalan demarcations, with Lleida showing a notable increase of 48%, for 855 homes.

However, the municipalities of Barcelona concentrate most of the new housing work approved by the Coac, and also the vast majority of protected housing. Of the total of 2,883 officially protected apartments processed this year, 2,318 are located in the Barcelona demarcation, including the 910 in the Catalan capital. The figures have been registered during a 2024 in which the Government of Salvador Illa has announced an investment of 4.4 billion euros to build 50,000 public homes in Catalonia by 2030, something that Costa has described as a "challenge," especially due to the lack of sufficient land ready for construction. "It will not be easy, but the will is to collaborate as much as possible," Costa guaranteed, even if this plan implies a "change of gear" for a sector that now operates at a different pace due to the 2008 crisis and COVID.

In defense of rehabilitation

In addition to approving new construction projects, large rehabilitation projects must also pass through the Coac, which this year have totaled an approved area of 1.2 million square meters. The figure is 13% below that of 2023, which was a year of large rehabilitation projects, including that of Camp Nou. Taking into account the exceptional nature of 2023 and comparing 2024 with 2022, the rehabilitation area grew by 12.4%.

However, as Costa highlighted, rehabilitation is stagnant in Catalonia, below 30% of the total area approved by the Coac. Nevertheless, most rehabilitation interventions are not obliged to obtain this approval, so the data available to the College do not reflect the totality of projects in Catalonia.

"The saturation of the soil in the Catalan capital makes it clear that the challenge of the aging housing stock lies in rehabilitation," highlighted Costa, who pointed to aid from the Next Generation funds as an opportunity to advance in this area. Even so, "there is a delay in applications, and it is essential to work to facilitate their reach to more citizens and reactivate the construction sector."

Bureaucracy as a brake

Taking into account not only housing, but all areas of construction, the Coac has approved projects totaling 4.7 million square meters during 2024, 1.2% less than in 2023, although 4% more than in 2022. This total area has been distributed among 8,453 projects, 3% less than the previous year, which means larger promotions were driven in 2024.

In Barcelona, the approved area has fallen by 39% compared to 2023, mainly due to the processing of large projects the previous year, such as that of Camp Nou and the Estel Building to transform it into an office complex. However, the 2024 figure has also remained below that of 2022, with a 9% decrease.

In this sense, the creation of new housing is the area that is sustaining the building sector in Catalonia. To contribute to its revitalization, Oliveras has called for streamlining bureaucratic processes for project processing, something in which the Coac is already working in a commission with the City Council and together with other actors linked to construction, as Miquel detailed.

"The delay in licenses greatly slows down the sector," emphasized Costa, who also highlighted the difficulty of simultaneously complying with all existing regulations and making them compatible. As he underlined, although by law the deadline to obtain a license is three months, in practice the times extend to seven or eight months: "We have to find the formulas to speed up the times."