Social housing scheme launched in one of Spain’s most popular cities for UK visitors
BARCELONA – The Catalan capital has launched a plan to solve a housing crisis that has helped drive a spate of protests against overtourism across Spain.
One of the country’s most popular destinations for British tourists, Barcelona was the scene of violent demonstrations in June against “touristification”.
Now, an alliance of banks, investors, residents, architects and local authorities are turning empty flats into 1,300 units of social housing.
This kind of housing association has not been found before in Spain, unlike other countries such as the UK.
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Casa Bloc, an apartment block in Sant Andreu, a working-class area far from Barcelona‘s tourist trail, has already provided 17 much-needed homes to some of the poorest people in the city.
The one- or two-bedroom apartments cost between €280-€320 (£242–£277) per month. Similar properties on the open market cost at least €600 (£519) per month, and often more than €1,000 (£865).
A Casa Bloc tenant, who did not want to disclose her name, told The i Paper she was grateful for the home. “When you are in such a vulnerable position, you start to think you don’t deserve anything. You feel completely alone and that you will never get out of that well – but you can,” she said.
Natalia Martínez, director of alliances and communication at non-profit Fundació Habitat 3, said the increase in the number of holiday apartments was a sign of how rental costs had outstripped salaries.
“[Tourism] is a link in the chain that is complicated,” she told The i Paper. “We tend to think that tourism and temporary housing is the problem. My view is that they are a symptom of a bigger problem, which is we don’t have enough social housing.”
Ainara Fernández, of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, a think tank and UK-based charity, said the growing protests in the region underscored the issue.
“Social tensions are high, so much so that we’re seeing housing protests for the first time in Catalonia. However, an alternative housing system is emerging that deserves greater attention,” she said.
The Canary Islands have seen simliar protests. Brian Harrison, general secretary of Salvar La Tejita, a protest group in the archipelago said it had some housing associations but “until the tens of thousands of properties held by banks or used as unlicensed holiday rentals are allocated to the housing market, these associations have very limited resources to work with”.
Spain needs to increase its social housing stock – which accounts for 3 per cent of all homes – to bring it closer to the European average of 8 per cent, according to Eurostat figures.
In June, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez offered to invest €4bn to build more housing, and plug a deficit in the number of homes estimated at 450,000 by the Bank of Spain.