The obligation to allocate 30% of the floors of the new developments in Barcelona to social housing has paralyzed the construction of new construction in the city, but it has only managed to build 52 subsidized homes since it was approved in 2018, according to the data presented today by the Association of Promoters of Catalonia (APCE).
According to its president, Xavier Vilajoana, the data provided to employers by the City Council itself show that since 2018 developers have requested 13 building permits in the city with the restrictions of this law, of which the council has approved 11 that have in Total 52 protected houses. In 2022, he points out, only one license has been granted until September, in a development that has 6 protected homes. “The administrations would have to assess whether, over the years that we have been, a regulation that had the objective of increasing subsidized housing in the city has achieved its objectives,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, the APCE data highlights the drop in the promotion of new construction in Barcelona city: 1,389 homes were started in the capital up to September, 16.6% less compared to 2021. “The lack of land, the slow in processing licenses and the obligation to allocate 30% of the properties in promotions that have more than 600 m² to Social Housing” acknowledged Vilajoana.
In Catalonia as a whole, the construction of 11,503 homes has begun until September, 10.5% more than the same period in 2021, well below the needs of the population since some 25,000 new homes are created a year.
Vilajoana highlighted that up to September 1,138 subsidized homes have been built in Catalonia in Catalonia (11.1% of the total homes completed), with 76.4% of them promoted by private companies, while public administrations have promoted only 269 homes, the remaining 23.6% (269). According to Xavier Vilajoana, “this situation would have to change, because it is the administrations that have the obligation to guarantee the well-being of the most disadvantaged”.
Until September, 16.4% of the homes sold in Catalonia were new construction, with 12,863 units sold, a figure that has increased by 16.4% compared to the previous year, practically the same increase as total sales. , which has been 17.2%.
Housing development has been concentrated in Barcelonès (2,470 homes), Baix Llobregat (1,804), Vallès Occdidental (1,504) and Maresme (1,017). As a novelty, Vilajoana highlighted the increase in the participation of Lleida and Tarragona, where works have been reactivated in localities where the excessive stocks left by the real estate boom have finally been absorbed.
According to data from the APCE, 36.2% of the homes under construction are still for sale, “a percentage consistent with the operation of the sector, where banks require between 30% and 45% of pre-sold homes to facilitate financing. The large percentage of pre-sales has meant that “companies have assumed 90% of the increase in construction costs that we have had due to the war and the energy crisis”.
For Vilajoana, however, it is practically impossible for this increase not to be reflected in the final price soon, with increases of 2 or 3%. “I don’t think there will be a much higher increase, because the costs have started to moderate and because the final price depends on the capacity of the possible buyers.”
New homes go on sale at an average price of 4,533 euros / useful m², with an increase of 2.5% compared to 2021. “These are prices per useful square meter – Vilajoana warned – which normally in a home are 25% less than the meters built, so the average prices would also be 25% lower if we express them in meters built”.
The price increase, recalled Vilajoana, is less than that of the CPI. The data from the PACE register price increases of 25.9% in new construction developments in Girona and 22.2% in Tarragona, but Vilajoana warned that the increase is due to the fact that in previous years the sales developments came from of the bubble years.
New construction flats, according to data from the PACE, have been adapted to the new demands of citizens: with an average surface area of ??80.7 m², those with 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms predominate (45.3%), more than 70% have a kitchenette, 50.3% a swimming pool, 48.4% a storage room and 37.7% garden areas. “These are trends that began in the pandemic, but have been consolidated,” said Vilajoana. “Now potential buyers highly value the entire exterior environment of the home.”
One-bedroom flats have also practically disappeared from developments: even in Barcelona, ??the city where the flats are smallest, they are only 12% “and are mostly used for rent. Now buyers are not looking for a home to sell it in a few years and move on to a larger one, but instead choose a home that fits their long-term life project”.
