In Cerdanya, foreign towns are clearly the majority. In 16 of its 17 municipalities, weekend housing exceeds the main one, and in the towns that belong to Girona – the region is divided between this province and Lleida –, second homes exceed 60% of the total number of homes. Of the territory. In some towns such as Alp, Das, Fontanals or Prats i Sansor, the buildings used mainly for weekends or holiday periods multiply by four those that are considered main residences, according to figures taken from the latest population and housing census of 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 restaurants clearly benefit from these high percentages, geographers warn of the economic, social and land occupation consequences that having such a high number of homes in which resides sporadically. “The logical thing would be for there to be a balance; We consider that when there are more than double the number of second homes compared to the main home, there is a disproportion and we speak of specialization of the territory, in this case of a residential type,” says geographer Rosa María Fraguell, author in 1993 of the thesis Turisme residential i territori . The second residence in the Gironine regions. Although the study did not analyze any municipality in this region, she affirms that the consequences of having a territory so focused on second homes can be extrapolated.
Fraguell, who is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Girona, points out 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 limited capacity of generate work from that territory. “Although the second residence can generate related work, maintenance or cleaning, it is scarce compared to that of a hotel infrastructure,” she points out. Another problem is the forced departure of many young people due to not having the financial capacity to pay a mortgage or rent.
A phenomenon that affects not only young people, according to Enric Quílez, president of the Cerdanya Research Group, one of the ten entities in the region that has signed the Confluència decalogue for a sustainable Cerdanya in which they urge public and private powers to create more social housing. The average price per square meter in new construction in this region is increasing 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 one thousand euros. “Gentrification is affecting young people, but also older and middle-aged people; A couple with two good salaries today has just enough to find a house or apartment in Cerdanya,” says Quílez. “But they also have serious medical problems or teachers assigned to the region,” he adds.
The 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 the French Cerdanya, Llívia or Bellver. “I couldn’t find anything to buy and 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 an apartment “50% cheaper than in Cerdanya”. Since the Cadí tunnel became free in 2012 for residents of Cerdanya, Alt Urgell and Berguedà, more and more people are looking for a roof over their heads in these two neighboring regions.
But from the Sindicat d’Habitatge de la Cerdanya they affirm 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 left the region at the age of 18 to study and is currently looking for a house or apartment in Berguedà due to the impossibility of continuing to assume what he They ask in Martinet, where he lives with his partner. “La Cerdanya is one of the regions with the lowest base salary in Catalonia and, however, the rent is above 800 euros; If you want to live alone, you already allocate 80% of your salary to rent,” he says, highlighting the difficulty of finding annual rentals.
The number of second homes in this region has intensified since the 70s and 80s of the last century. A study by the University of Barcelona placed the 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, of which three quarters They are located in Cerdanya Girona. And it seems to have no brakes. Currently, the region has the highest construction index in Catalonia. If the average is two homes per thousand inhabitants, in this Pyrenean region the figure rises to twelve per thousand. According to data from the Girona demarcation of the Col legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, 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, therefore, that construction has already become the first sector in the region, therefore even above tourism. Today, tourism, construction and food account for 90% of all companies in the region, 77% of turnover and 83% of employment.
The geographers explain that several of these homes are no longer second homes, “but third and fourth homes,” whose use is less. “There are studies that establish the use made 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 occupancy, a town hall must guarantee all services throughout the year, such as water or lighting, which results in enormous oversizing,” he emphasizes; and he wonders what could happen if, as a result of climate change, there stops being snow in a territory heavily invested in ski tourism. “The functioning of the region would go into crisis, it is not clear to me that second home visitors will continue visiting it when this happens,” he maintains. Experts recommend starting to “reinvent” the economy towards nature, mountain or cycle tourism that generates more benefits and spending capacity throughout the year and not only during vacation periods.
