Housing

Edifici d'habitatges

Up to 2,800 new publicly subsidised homes in around 50 housing developments were managed during the 2015 to 2019 mandate. During this same period, a housing strategy was spearheaded in coordination with all the regional stakeholders in an effort to standardise criteria. The investment made by the Metropolitan Land Development and Property Management Institute (IMPSOL) was 120.6 million euros, and the maintenance of the support plans for the municipal housing companies entailed an investment of 10.3 million euros. In these four years of management, prominent actions include the creation of the metropolitan operator of publicly subsidised housing, as well as the creation of the Metropolitan Housing Observatory as the action instruments of the metropolitan housing policy.

The government agreement of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) for the 2015-2019 mandate, signed on 23 July 2015, has the sectoral goal of promoting metropolitan-wide public housing policies.

In line with the previous history, the AMB has developed and approved a document containing guidelines for the 2016-2019 metropolitan housing policy, which sets forth the tools and strategies that should enable the objectives set by the political mandate to be reached.

The AMB holds authorities on land and housing policies in accordance with the provisions of the law that created it (Title III, art. 36). It is the AMB's responsibility to define metropolitan land and housing policies aimed at guaranteeing intermunicipal solidarity, sufficiency and the economic viability of these policies, as well as guaranteeing the constitutional right to housing and fulfilling the principles established in article 3 of the recast text of the Law on Urban Development, approved by legislative decree 1/2005.

It is also the AMB's job to engage in land planning to assign land to industrial and tertiary uses, to promote affordable housing developments and to build public facilities under the command of the metropolitan municipalities and others that may be delegated to them by agreement or via a consortium.
  • IMPSOL's publicly subsidised housing developments

    With the goal of developing a real policy based on the principle of the right to housing, the AMB has worked to guarantee the mandate of urban solidarity to benefit lower-income groups and has carried out actions that have enabled publicly subsidised housing to be built.

    Throughout the period 2015-2019, up to 2,776 new publicly subsidised homes have been managed in around 50 housing developments around the metropolitan municipalities. This figure includes both those that have already been delivered and those that are in the tender or execution phase, are being designed or have agreements that are currently being processed. 

    To consolidate the right to housing, a metropolitan strategy has been spearheaded with the coordination of all the regional stakeholders involved in order to standardise the criteria and actions to expand the stock of publicly subsidised housing and ensure its improvement in terms of construction quality, energy efficiency and the accessibility of the housing stock already built.

    The AMB has its own administrative instruments and means which enables it, along with the local administrations, to implement a land development and publicly subsidised housing policy through the Directorate of Urban Development Services, IMPSOL, the Metropolitan Housing Consortium and the programmes of the metropolitan town halls. 


    IMPSOL developments, 2015-2019

    Urbanisations
    Municipi Sector Superfície Generat HPO Inversió
    Cornellà de Llobregat Pisa 3.397,70 m2 85 85 567.734,00 €
    Molins de Rei Les Guardioles 129.876 m2 680 363 9.419.738,84 €
    Sant Adrià de Besòs La Catalana 101.663 m2 1.380 527 4.089.485,34 €
    TOTAL 234.937 2.145 975 14.076.958,18 €
    Housing developments finished and delivered in 2018
    Municipi Carrer Habitatge Hab. de venda Hab. de lloguer Inversió
    Esplugues de Llobregat Pep Ventura 17 17 - 2.012.955,99 €
    Gavà Av. 8 de Març (B1) 143 143 - 25.736.007,09 €
    Montgat Joanot Martorell (18D) 40 40 - 4.620.196,85 €
    TOTAL 200 200 0 32.369.159,93 €
    Housing developments in the tender/execution phase and agreements currently being processed
    Municipi Carrer Habitatge Hab. de venda Hab. de lloguer Inversió
    Cornellà de Llobregat Pisa 85 75 10 15.484.813,95 €
    Gavà Av. 8 de Març (B2) 136 136 - 19.676.111,81 €
    Molins de Rei Les Guardioles (Fase 1) 56 54 2 9.597.939,63 €
    Montgat Joanot Martorell (18C) 62 31 31 7.652.538,17 €
    Sant Boi de Llobregat Baldiri Net i Figueres (H2) 79 75 4 13.140.963,83 €
    Sant Feliu de Llobregat Pla (3a planta) 18 0 18 1.163.150,00 €
    TOTAL 436 371 65 66.715.517,39 €
    Housing developments in the design phase and agreements signed
    Municipi Carrer Habitatge Hab. de venda Hab. de lloguer Inversió
    Castelldefels (HMB) Pietat 75 - 75 6.645.868,98 €
    Cornellà de Llobregat (HMB) Can Bagaria 66 - 66 4.348.556,00 €
    Masnou Caserna 40 40 - 3.896.080,00 €
    Masnou Illa Centre 62 62 - 6.299.051,20 €
    Molins de Rei Les Guardioles (Fase 2) 60 60 - 8.211.916,39 €
    Montgat Camí de les Bateries (18J) 39 22 17 5.019.535,37 €
    Montgat (HMB) Joanot Martorell (18A) 79 - 79 9.091.534,98 €
    Montgat (HMB) Joanot Martorell (18B) 62 - 62 7.431.021,62 €
    Sant Adrià de Besòs Av. de la Catalana (R19A) 58 58 - 10.758.676,25 €
    Sant Adrià de Besòs (HMB) La Catalana (R16) 57 - 57 8.069.964,57 €
    Sant Adrià de Besòs (HMB) La Catalana (R17) 57 - 57 8.069.964,57 €
    Sant Andreu de la Barca (HMB) Josep Pla 37 - 37 4.011.455,40 €
    Sant Boi de Llobregat (HMB) Baldiri Net i Figueres (H1) 84 - 84 16.445.608,24 €
    Sant Feliu de Llobregat Anselm Clavé 40 20 20 4.034.492,52 €
    Sant Feliu de Llobregat Pla (4a planta) 16 - 16 1.163.150,00 €
    Sant Just Desvern Carolina Catasús 7 (5T) 30 16 14 3.673.649,81 €
    Viladecans Jaume Balmes 2 22 22 - 3.460.209,51 €
    TOTAL 884 300 584 110.630.735,41 €
    Housing developments in the management phase and agreements currently being processed
    Municipi Carrer Habitatge Hab. de venda Hab. de lloguer Inversió
    Badalona Manresà 30 30 -
    Badalona Pomar de Baix 54 23 23 -
    Badalona Progrés 199 17 17 -
    Badalona (HMB) Progrés 241 55 - 55
    Badia del Vallès (HMB) Saragossa s/n 32 - 32
    Castelldefels Albert Einstein 8 90 90 -
    Molins de Rei (HMB) Guardioles R10 40 - 40
    Molins de Rei (HMB) Guardioles R13 36 - 36
    Montcada i Reixac Quarters 88 88 -
    Sant Boi (HMB) Saló Central 55 - 55
    Sant Boi (HMB) Marianao 50 - 50
    Sant Cugat del Vallès (La Floresta) Estel 12-14-16-18 75 75 -
    Sant Cugat del Vallès (La Floresta) Verge de Montserrat 9-27 24 24 -
    Sant Vicenç dels Horts Camí de la Font de Sant Josep 9 36 36 -
    Sant Vicenç dels Horts Sant Antoni 24 24 -
    Sant Vicenç dels Horts Sector Bofarull 200 200 -
    Santa Coloma de Gramenet Eix Bruc 85 85 -
    Viladecans Sector Llevant Parcel·la 25 62 62 -
    Viladecans Sector Llevant Parcel·la 26 60 60 -
    Viladecans (HMB) Josep V. Foix 70 - 70
    Viladecans (HMB) Lluís Moré 25 - 25
    Viladecans (HMB) Sector Llevant Parcel·la 31 80 - 80
    TOTAL 1.257 814 443 0,00 €
    TOTAL 2.777 1.685 1.092 209.715.413
  • Programme to support municipal housing companies
    The local public housing development companies had to deal with budgetary restrictions within the economic context of the period 2011-2015.

    On 26 July 2016, the Metropolitan Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area approved the extension of the Programme to Support Municipal Housing Companies until December 2017, which could in turn be extended until December 2018 with prior justification. It also authorised the terms of the contracts signed with the municipal companies to be modified and established an addendum which outlines the new buyback conditions, since the programme stipulated that the municipal companies could choose to buyback the right from IMPSOL-AMB at any time before the programme is over.

    The programme included the following 100% municipally-owned companies: GTI (Gavà), Procornellà (Cornellà de Llobregat), Promusa (Sant Cugat del Vallès), Promunsa (Sant Just Desvern), Vimed (Viladecans) and Gramepark (Santa Coloma de Gramenet).

    The Metropolitan Land Development and Property Management Institute (IMPSOL), a public organisation with its own legal personality which guarantees citizens the accessibility of publicly-subsidised housing at affordable prices, made an investment of 120.6 million euros in the period 2015-2019, 26.9 million of which were earmarked for land acquisition and management, 71.2 million for building and 12.1 million for urbanisation. The maintenance of the plans to support the municipal housing companies entailed an investment of 10.3 million euros.

    IMPSOL, an organisation which is directly managed by the AMB, was responsible for carrying out the project.

    There are plans to close the Programme to Support Municipal Housing Companies in the first quarter of 2019 depending on the needs of each of the participating companies. Given that the end of the programme means the lands provided may or may not be bought back, in certain cases this buyback will be formalised, while in other cases this right will not be exercised.

    IMPSOL. Housing development search engine
    Housing Consortium
    Housing policy guidelines [pdf]

    Distribution of investment, 2015-2019

    2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total
    SÒL 0,00 14.243,04 9.452.397,77 7.071.498,15 10.443.567,18 26.981.706,14
    URBANITZACIÓ 1.522.143,27 3.035.423,51 3.452.261,17 2.004.947,27 2.117.647,30 12.132.422,52
    EDIFICACIÓ 12.866.438,56 15.033.800,58 9.664.213,84 7.814.531,68 25.827.373,97 71.206.358,63
    PLA SUPORT EMPRESES MUNICIPALS 7.502.851,20 899.400,99 693.271,97 1.209.289,99 0,00 10.304.814,15
    TOTAL INVERSIÓ 21.891.433,03 18.982.868,12 23.262.144,75 18.100.267,09 38.388.588,45 120.625.301,44
  • Reflection and analysis. Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona
    The Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona (O-HB) is a supramunicipal instrument led by several administrations: the Barcelona Town Hall, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Government of Catalonia, with the support of the Association of Publicly Subsidised Housing Managers (GHS).

    Founded in late 2016 as an instrument capable of gaining a holistic view of housing, its mission is to provide the information and tools needed to evaluate and design policies in this arena in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

    The Observatory was founded with the mission, shared by all the administrations driving it, to address the housing problems in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. This means that the databases and studies that the O-HB must undertake should refer to the specificities of this geographic region and must particularly detect the differences produced in order to find the reasons explaining them.

    Mission

    • To support the design of public housing policies
    Statistics is a science that is closely tied to public policies. Its name itself originates in the mid-18th century, associating the "science of state" with the analysis of data on the state. It was meant as a collection of essential data to be used by governments and administrative bodies. Specifically when designing public policies, it still retains that original meaning among those who understand that policies cannot be made without precise knowledge of the social reality.

    • To guarantee the neutrality and objectivity of statistical data
    The objective of any observatory should be to remain objective and neutral with regard to the political leanings of the different administrations that create and shape it. The interpretation of the data and the reflection on how to act in relation to the situation that the data describe can be diverse, depending on the political and ideological orientations of the public authorities. On this point, the mission of the O-HB is to describe facts, problems and circumstances and after the policies and strategies are in place, perhaps to evaluate them, also as objectively and neutrally as possible, inasmuch as this evaluation will once again become a study of the reality, now transformed – or not – by the policies adopted.
    • To provide citizens with information
    Beyond its important mission, to consistently support public policies, as society has advanced in knowledge and in the democratic demand for information, an observatory should also be a body that provides citizens with information. Hence, its validity depends on citizens' trust not only in its analyses of reality and diagnoses of problems but also in the recipes and therapies that the public administrations propose.

    Operating objectives 

    • To compile the available data on the region studied
    • To improve the existing data in light of the asymmetry of data among the different metropolitan municipalities
    • To fill in the missing data via laboratories
    Conducting a housing X-ray based on statistical information: On the one hand, the Observatory wants to contribute to filling the informational "black holes", while on the other it seeks to reach levels of regional detail that major, broad-spectrums statistical projects cannot, or when they do, they cannot guarantee the rigour and precision needed due to the lack of a sufficient sample.

    Instrumental objectives 

    • To network

    The Observatory wants to network with all the research services or data provision centres on the issue of housing related to the metropolitan area of Barcelona. They all play the twofold role of data suppliers and requesters of information for the respective administrations. It is essential to stress that one of the benefits of the agreement that led to the establishment of the O-HB is avoiding the duplication of tasks and efforts: joint, robust information, the kind that is placed at the service of everyone and that therefore does not need to be replicated, comes from the synergy stemming from everything that is available anytime one of the administrations is better positioned. 

    Contents


    The statistical content of the O-HB is organised according to different products and is based on a data system structured by information concentric circles which are gradually built over time and feed into each other.

    It starts with an available database located in the first concentric circle which builds a system of indicators, where the data are periodically updated and can feed the laboratories and any partnerships that must be undertaken, which are located in the second and third concentric circles. In turn, new data from the laboratories feeds the first concentric circle and generates extraction methodologies which can be extrapolated to other areas.

    All this information is visualised with different specific formats for each product and online visualisation system to publish the results. 

    System of housing indicators

    Design and maintenance of a common database on the main housing issues which encompasses all the data available from the different spheres of action while also allowing new indicators to be designed which gradually expand over time. This system of indicators has an asymmetrical structure in terms of the number of data and the degree of breakdown depending on the area. It distinguishes between municipal (city of Barcelona), metropolitan and provincial databases. The analysis and management stemming from it is formalised with the delivery of an annual housing report.

    Housing in the metropolitan area of Barcelona 2017
    System of housing indicators (pending publication in April 2019)

    Laboratories

    • Structure and concentration of housing ownership in the city of Barcelona
    With the goal of expanding knowledge of the evolution of home ownership, a study was carried out on the structure and concentration of home ownership in the city of Barcelona.

    The long-term objective is to consolidate a series of indicators that provide information on its evolution through the design of its own methodology. At the same time, they should enable the degree of housing concentration or accumulation by different kinds of taxpayers to be measured. Improved knowledge of the characteristics of the housing stock and its units should allow its functioning and future evolution to be improved. 

    Objectives:

    • To analyse the structure of the housing stock in terms of both the regional distribution and the analysis of plots for residential use depending on the type of property division.
    • To analyse the structure of the ownership and distribution of the different kinds of housing taxpayers.
    • To evaluate the degree of concentration of home ownership and to resolve the time evolution of this factor after the start of this study.

    Reference rental price index in Catalonia

    In 2017, the Government of Catalonia drew up a reference index of rental market prices based on the data coming from down payments on contracts deposited at the Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl). This is an indicator which allows average rental prices to be checked and compared in 27 municipalities in Catalonia, and all citizens may access it through an online viewer, which opens the information up to citizens.

    In 2018, a series of technical meetings were held with Incasòl with the goal of agreeing to the contribution of new data or improvements of the existing data in order to expand the fields of information needed in the database to construct and improve the calculation of the reference price index.

    Rental supply and demand in the metropolitan area of Barcelona

    The Rental Laboratory is a study conducted by the O-HB to take a comprehensive X-ray of rentals in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. In this case, the Laboratory focuses on analysing the rental of entire flats as either regular housing or housing rented seasonally.

    There are plans to expand the contents of the rental supply and demand Laboratory conducted in 2017, which would consolidate a historical series started in the previous study with data on the supply and demand in conjunction with the leading housing operators.

    Objectives:

    • To expand the information on the rental market coming from information on rental contracts based on down payments deposited in Incasòl.
    • To analyse of the rental supply and demand via a partnership agreement with the Habitaclia group, which would enable the relationship between supply and demand, the seasonality of the supply and the comparison of contracted prices to be reliably studied.
    • To design a methodology to analyse the supply data on real estate portals.

    From empty homes to publicly subsidised housing

    The rigorous analysis of housing and the design of policies require a reliable description of the housing stock as well as the way it is used. Despite its importance, there is no official figure updated annually on the total number of homes or on how they are used, and the issue of how many empty homes there are has become a dance of figures.

    Objectives:

    • To compile and compare the main methodologies to detect empty homes which have been produced and are being developed in Catalonia.
    • To propose improvements in the analysis methodologies used.

    Housing overspending

    This study analyses the data on the spending earmarked for housing and overspending, that is, the percentage of households which earmark 40% or more of their income to paying housing expenses. The data come from mining the Survey on Living Conditions, which is comparable to Eurostat's EU-SILC. In the case of Catalonia, this allows it to be broken down regionally by Barcelona, the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the demarcation of Barcelona. 

    Objectives:

    • To develop the methodology to create indicators on spending on housing and the overspending rate in a way that is harmonised with the methodology used by Eurostat, which could provide continuity and comparability to the mining of this indicator.
    • To cross this indicator with other variables of interest to be analysed, such as income level and tenancy status.
    • To develop a report analysing the results, with a comparison of the results obtained for Barcelona, the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the demarcation of Barcelona with information from other European Union countries.

    Coverage of the AMB's housing needs. From the PTSHC to the PDU

    Two planning instruments are currently being drawn up and are in the stages prior to their initial approval, namely the Sectoral Housing Plan of Catalonia (PTSHC) and the Urban Development Master Plan (PDU) for the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

    Objectives:
    • To develop population and household projection scenarios for Catalonia and to convey them to the metropolitan area of Barcelona in a way that matches the different regional conditioning factors: the housing potential coming from the as-yet unbuilt sectors of the PGM, and the proposals and different alternative scenarios posited within the framework of the PDU.
    • To coordinate monitoring between the teams of the PTSHC, the PDU and the O-HB to share and compare methodologies and results.

    Data visualisation 

    Development of static and dynamic visualisation tools which enable the information generated by the O-HB to be accessed in an open, user-friendly fashion. The objective is to put all the products on an online platform in order to open and centralise the information and make it available to the different user profiles.

    The visualisation encompasses different media:

    • Reports and maps: design of reports mining the indicators and historical series
    • Web applications
    Viewer (website)
    Comparative study of rental regulation measures in Europe
  • Metropolitan housing operator
    In this mandate, it was agreed to create the metropolitan operator of publicly-subsidised housing as an instrument of acting on the metropolitan policy, with the participation of the Barcelona Town Hall and other metropolitan towns halls that are interested.

    In its sessions on 28 November 2017 and 27 February 2018, the Metropolitan Council initially and definitively approved the launch of an initiative to develop a commercial activity consisting in offering publicly subsidised rental housing under a protection scheme in the guise of a corporation with public capital, which would eventually become a joint venture.

    On 19 March 2018, the company named Habitatge Metròpolis Barcelona, SA was created with the mission of becoming a joint venture.

    Likewise, on 27 January 2017, the Plenary of the Barcelona Town Hall approved the 2016-2025 Right to Housing Plan, whose strategic avenues include increasing the public housing stock in the city set aside for affordable rentals. To achieve this objective, the AMB offered the Town Hall 50% of the initial capital, which was capitalised in July 2018.

    Sant Boi de Llobregat and Montgat, first actions

    On 29 January 2019, the General Shareholders Board of HMB approved the initial capital increase, which consisted in the AMB's contribution of two properties and a monetary contribution from the Barcelona Town Hall totalling €12,000,000.00. The first properties with actions plans are in Sant Boi de Llobregat and Montgat. In the same session, the start of the tender to transform HMB into a joint venture was approved.

    The HMB mission is to create a stock of 4,500 rental homes within 10 years. The geographic distribution of the homes will materialise in approximately 2,250 homes in the municipalities within the metropolitan area and 2,250 in the municipality of Barcelona.

    The estimated investment is calculated at 400 and 450 million euros. The lands shall be released to HMB by the shareholding public administrations or as non-monetary capital infusions, or in other forms, such as the constitution or cession of surface rights or other long-term rights in favour of HMB. The rent applicable to the homes and the requirements for accessing them shall be those contained in the Housing Plan in force at any given time.

    Housing
    Housing operator