Administrative obstacles block the way to one of the simplest ways to increase the housing stock: changing the use of the almost 50,000 empty commercial premises in the largest Spanish cities, about 20% of the total . According to a study by the digital economic observatory Eixos and the consulting firm Deloitte for the apis of Catalonia, only 4% of commercial premises can obtain a certificate of occupancy, although almost 40% of those currently there have little exit as a commercial location. For this reason, warned Joana Amat, vice-president of Amat Immobiliaris, for empty premises to become a residential alternative that helps alleviate the housing problem, the Technical Building Code must be modified and in many cases the regulation local urbanism.
The study has analyzed the situation of 253,000 premises located in the twelve Spanish cities of more than 300,000 inhabitants, which represent almost 25% of the total park of commercial premises in the country. Of these premises, 20% have an excellent location and 36% a good location, while 16% (42,630 throughout Spain) have a bad, unfavorable or poor location. In Barcelona, ??62% have an excellent or good location, while in other localities, with less touristic and commercial vitality in the neighborhoods, the percentages are worse, with 55% in Madrid, 41% in Valencia, 23% in Alicante or 22% in Bilbao.
This, the study acknowledges, means that on average 20% of premises are empty, with percentages reaching 35% in Bilbao.
Amat emphasized that more and more mayors are looking to promote the change of use of empty premises into housing, and that the College of Estate Administrators has received requests for studies on the feasibility of doing so by many councils, including Madrid.
The most appropriate transformation, points out Amat, is in an open-plan, loft-type home, and they could dedicate themselves to building accessible housing for people with reduced mobility, such as the elderly, or for young people. A study carried out by his company in Badalona put the cost of fitting out a 100m2 premises at 60,000 euros, for which a rent of 750 euros could be collected. “It is an operation that benefits the tenant, the owner, the urban fabric of the city; which brings the elderly back to life, who gain social contact, and society as a whole, because it reduces spending on residences”.
The municipal regulation in some neighborhoods prevents there being houses on the ground floor, or regulates the densities and therefore prevents the building from having another house. Iván Vaqué, CEO of Forcadell, recalled that, in addition, the Technical Building Code requires that there be ventilation with access to a patio or storage room. Amat assured that “this code is from 2006 and has become outdated in many aspects: for example, good mechanical ventilation is more efficient than a patio”. In addition, he recalled, the Government can change it as it deems necessary with a simple decree law.
The number of empty premises has increased after the pandemic. “Occupation has not yet returned to what it was before”, pointed out David Nogué, director of Eixos, who recalled that after covid 50% of the premises were empty and that only the effort of the owners by adjusting the rents and giving shortfalls to the tenants managed to speed up the reopening.
Vaqué emphasized, for his part, that in many cases it is the financial demands of the owners that do not allow the premises to be rented. “Many businesses now cannot pay the rents for 2019″, he pointed out, while Amat recalled that this is why many entrepreneurs choose the location based on the rent they can pay, not the location, and this ultimately means that your business is not viable”. The turnover of tenants, for this reason, is very high and reaches 25% “in the best streets, where businesses work and there are many operators interested in paying a fee to the merchant to be able to enter”, pointed out Nogué.
Empty premises are generally in areas with little pedestrian traffic and are particularly abundant in the cities of the outer radius. “If commerce doesn’t work in a place, it’s difficult to find alternative uses: companies don’t usually want to set up offices there; the communities put obstacles in the way of their use as storage rooms, so that people outside the estate do not enter the building, and micro-logistics, which is sometimes seen as an alternative, does not require space”, pointed out Vaqué.
