In Cerdanya there is a clear majority of foreign villages. In sixteen of its seventeen municipalities, the weekend home exceeds the main one and in the towns that belong to Girona – the region is divided between this province and that of Lleida – the second residence exceeds 60% of the total number of homes in the territory In some localities such as Alp, Das, Fontanals de Cerdanya or Prats and Sansor, the buildings intended mostly for weekends or holiday periods multiply by four those that are considered the main residence, according to figures taken from the last population census and homes from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), with data from 2021. The county capital, Puigcerdà, is the only municipality in this territory where the second residence is still in the minority, with 40% of the total.
Although sectors such as tourism, construction or catering clearly benefit from these high percentages, geographers warn of the economic, social and land use consequences of having such a high figure for a territory of homes in which one resides sporadically. “The most logical thing would be for there to be a balance; we consider that when there are more than twice as many second homes as compared to the main home, there is a disproportion and we are talking about the specialization of the territory, in this case of the residential type”, affirms the geographer Rosa María Fraguell, author of the thesis in 1993 Residential tourism and territory. The second residence in the Girona regions. Although the study did not analyze any municipality in this region, it states that the consequences of having a territory so overturned in the second residence are extrapolable.
Fraguell, who is a full professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Girona, indicates several factors, such as the increase in the price of land and housing, “the appropriation and mortgage of land that is already irrecoverable” or the scarce capacity to generate employment in this territory. “Although the second residence can generate related work, maintenance or cleaning, it is scarce compared to that of a hotel infrastructure”, he indicates. Another problem is the forced departure of many young people because they do not have the financial capacity to pay a mortgage or rent.
A phenomenon that affects not only young people, as warned by Enric Quílez, president of the Cerdanya Research Group, one of the ten organizations in the region that has subscribed to the decalogue Confluence for a sustainable Cerdanya, in which they urge public and private authorities to create more social housing The average price per square meter in new construction in this region is climbing and in 2021 it stood at 3,372 euros, the third most expensive in Catalonia after Barcelona and Val d’Aran. In less than ten years, the price per square meter has risen by a thousand euros. “Gentrification is affecting young people, but also old and middle-aged people; a couple with two good salaries today have just enough to find a house or flat in La Cerdanya”, says Quílez. “But doctors and teachers assigned to the region also have serious problems.”
Civil servant Jordi Páez was 36 years old when he decided to leave Cerdanya, where he works. His salary was not enough to live in Puigcerdà. Nor in French Cerdanya, Llívia or Bellver de Cerdanya. “I couldn’t find anything to buy or rent at an affordable price for an average income like mine,” he explains. He finally decided to move to Bagà, in Berguedà, where he found a flat “50% cheaper than in Cerdanya”. Since the Cadí tunnel became free for residents of Cerdanya, Alt Urgell and Berguedà in 2012, more and more people are looking for a roof to live in these two neighboring counties.
But from the Housing Association of Cerdanya they claim that the situation is also becoming tense in this region and in other neighboring areas. “Until five or six years ago, one could still consider going to live in Berguedà, Alt Urgell or Alta Cerdanya; now the price of housing is also increasing a lot in these territories”, says Nathan García, who at the age of 18 left the region to study and is currently looking for a house or flat in Berguedà due to the impossibility of continuing to take on what is asked of him in Martinet, where he lives with his partner. “La Cerdanya is one of the regions with the lowest basic salary in Catalonia and, despite this, the rent is over 800 euros; if you want to live alone, you already allocate 80% of your salary to rent”, he says, and highlights the difficulty of finding annual rents.
The number of second homes in this region has increased since the decades of the seventies and eighties of the last century. A study by the University of Barcelona placed the number of secondary homes in the region at 2,235 in 1970, a figure that doubled to 4,412 in 1980 and more than 9,000 in 2001. Today there are more than 12,000, and three quarters parts are located in Girona’s Cerdanya. And it doesn’t seem to stop. Currently, the region has the highest construction rate in Catalonia. If the average is two homes per thousand inhabitants, in this Pyrenees region the figure rises to twelve per thousand. According to data from the demarcation of Girona of the College of Architects of Catalonia, 2022 became the year with the most newly created homes approved in the last decade. There were a total of 150, three times more than in 2020, a year marked by the pandemic, and four more than in 2016. It is not surprising, then, that construction has already become the first sector in the region, for about even tourism. Currently, tourism, construction and food account for 90% of all businesses in the region, 77% of turnover and 83% of employment.
The geographers explain that some of these homes are no longer second homes, “but third and fourth homes”, the use of which is less. “There are studies that set the use of these houses at 15 or 20 days a year”, explains the geographer, researcher and professor at the UdG, Javier Martín. “However, despite this low level of employment, a council must guarantee all services throughout the year, such as water or lighting, with which there is a huge over-dimensioning”, he underlines and wonders what can happen if , as a result of climate change, there is no more snow in a territory very focused on ski tourism. “The operation of the region would be in crisis, I am not sure that second residence visitors will continue to visit it when this happens”, he says. Experts recommend starting to “reinvent” the economy towards nature, mountain or cycling tourism that generates more profits and spending capacity throughout the year and not just during holiday periods
