Closed shops with the “Local for sale” sign are a common sight in Catalan cities, especially as a result of the 2008 crisis and, later, the pandemic. On many occasions, the premises end up deteriorating, due to occupations or vandalism. The Projectes i Gestió 2015 Platform, made up of experts in the real estate sector, promotes the change of use from premises to housing and has several open fronts with L’Hospitalet town halls, Terrassa or Barcelona so that they do not evict tenants who live in old premises converted into flats, with all habitability measures.
In the last six years, this platform has managed 40 files in Catalonia. Its spokesperson, the engineer Jose Maria Coderch, claims that “the habitability law of 20 years ago, which does not reflect the current social demand, for small, lower-income, cheaper homes, be made more flexible at such a complex time of crisis.” There are municipalities that have seen the opportunity. The scarce supply of rental housing in Sant Sadurnà d’Anoia has motivated the council to promote a reform in the urban plan that allows, very easily, to convert closed commercial premises into housing. The new regulations have an exception: the premises on the ground floor of the main commercial axes, the municipal commitment to protect local commerce.
Coderch regrets that, in recent months, “the Barcelona, ​​L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Terrassa city councils have announced three evictions, within a month, against the owners or tenants of premises with a change of use, in addition to the withdrawal of consolidated works as housing. When the Property Registry and the Cadastre have registered and accepted this change and the tenants are registered â€, he details. The spokesman for the platform – made up of architects, builders and lawyers – reflects on “the current moment of tension in the real estate sector, due to the difficulties of promoting private housing due to the imposition of 30% of public housing, the lack of land and the exorbitant prices, how is it that the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya takes more than a year to grant the second occupancy certificate? “In other autonomous communities -he assures- the certificate of habitability is not requested in the houses coming from a change of use”.
A year and a half ago, Santi López bought 87 m2 ground floors, fully equipped for living, on Salvany street in Sabadell. Two bedrooms, bathroom, toilet, American kitchen open to the dining room, large windows with natural light in front and behind, the boiler room, smoke outlet, high ceilings, well insulated and a staircase to a second floor, with a room that Both can be used as a study or another bedroom. Twelve years earlier, it had been a bicycle shop, which ended up being sold and converted into a home. López, advised by an architect, rehabilitated the kitchen, bathrooms, and façade. When he went to process the change of use to housing-classified as premises-, from Urbanism of the Sabadell City Council they answered him no.
Here began the legal odyssey from home to home. “Although a year ago, they verbally told me that they were going to give me the change of use, in the end, I have only received refusals. From Urban Planning they argue that there cannot be homes on the ground floor and that this belongs to a block of flats that gives, in one of its two entrances, to Barberà avenue, considered a commercial axis â€, he laments. “It is registered in the Property Registry and I have paid the Documented Legal Acts, but the response of the city council is inflexible.” Curiously, the ground floor is in a quiet street, in front of a row of five houses, with no other business than an attached bar. Barberà avenue, 70 meters away. López, for now, continues to pay rent in Gavà and acknowledges that his situation is “nonsense” because he cannot use his house in Sabadell. “I feel very frustrated,” he laments.
Sources from the Sabadell City Council argue that, in some parts of the city, such as this one in Salvany, “the habitability regulations (Clau 1-9 Art. 404) indicate that the change cannot be made because its urban consideration specifically reserves the ground floor for commercial premises and, legally, cannot be converted into housingâ€. The same sources detail that the change of use is a “simple management, as long as the standard is complied with.” In 2021, 56 change-of-use urban licenses were granted for the creation of housing and one application was denied. And in 2022, 55 licenses were granted and three denied.
Given the current escalation in housing prices in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, the Platform’s demand is clear: that the city councils and the Agència de l’Habitatge “make habitability regulations from 20 years ago more flexible and allow closed premises to be transformed – between 40m2 and 90 m2-, in homes. They should not be on the first commercial line because we do not want them to compete with local businesses, but to give a second life to these premises that end up being occupied or deterioratingâ€. “They are not substandard housing either, but rather meet habitability conditions, such as ventilation, natural lighting, smoke outlet…” From the Platform – made up of architects, lawyers and real estate experts – they defend that these more affordable ground floors would be a “solution for single-parent families, young people or people with reduced mobilityâ€.
There are already tenants who live in an old converted premises, registered in the Property Registry and once registered, but they face “fewer rights than
the owners of flats: problems to access the CAP, go to school and pay a very high VAT”, warns Coderch,
The problem of empty basements is the central axis of the master’s thesis “The urban commitment of the ground floor.” The reactivation and transformation of disused low-rises in Catalan intermediate cities” by architect Marc Modolell, 2021-2022 MBArch student at the Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB) of the UPC. The work was funded by the Association of Developers and Builders of Catalonia (APCE) and focuses on three medium-sized cities: Mataró, Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltrú. The young architect focuses on the need to convert these vacant or underutilized floors to give them a viable long-term solution, such as housing, through a change of use.
For his part, the director of ETSAB, Félix Solaguren-Beascoa, argues that “if we want life, we need life in these spaces. For this reason, we must look at the horizontal and the ground floor, and flee from conflicts about their useâ€. Modolell agrees with Coderch, that it is necessary to update the legislation, for many of those consulted with obsolete aspects. “The regulations have protected the commercial use of the premises to have services close to the public. But at a time of crisis, it should be focused on the diversification of the ground floor, making regulations more flexibleâ€. It is not a matter – he warns – of “dividing into commercial and residential streets, as is the case now, but rather recognizing that the city has different levels of urban intensity and small businesses, offices, small workshops can be mixed with new types of housing that are more flexible and adaptable to the current situation such as coliving or apartments for young people or the elderly… And it would also be nice to recover old typologies such as studio housesâ€.
Modolell is aware of the difficulty of regularizing changes in use from premises to housing. “In Catalonia there are 946 different ways of approaching the problem of housing on the ground floor. It is very difficult to generalize because it falls on the municipalities. This hinders the ability to innovate legislatively and to adapt the regulations to the social reality of the moment, since you have to go from municipality to municipality â€, he concludes.
