Neither the Salamanca neighborhood, nor Pedralbes, nor Vallvidrera-Tibidabo, nor Somosaguas… The Ciutat Jardí neighborhood of Lleida surpasses them all and is, according to the Tax Agency, in second position on the list of richest neighborhoods. In the ranking, which is established by postal codes and with data from 2021, Ciutat Jardí registers an average gross income per taxpayer of 102,360 euros, only surpassed by La Moraleja (Alcobendas, Madrid), which leads the list with 190,949 euros per taxpayer.
The Lleida neighborhood, in full expansion – one of the last villas under construction has a budget of eight million – is located in the position occupied by Ciudad Vieja de A Coruña in 2020, in the domains of Amancio Ortega, leader of Inditex. The position of Ciutat Jardí is surprising, which in this latest count has almost doubled its average gross income and has gone from 54,797 to 102,360 euros, taking into account that there are only 61 more taxpayers.
It is the neighborhood of businessmen who own leading companies in their sector in Spain based in Lleida and the Strip, and also some fortunate families who have built several houses with the fortune of a lucky Euromillions.
The neighborhood association, which considers that the lack of services such as schools or senior centers increases the cost of living in the neighborhood, has agreed not to evaluate the statistic, which is strange for many of them. “I don’t understand how we can be ahead of neighborhoods where elite footballers live; Many families have resources, but we do not consider ourselves rich,” said a neighbor on Friday who was walking home with hiking poles.
In the last year, several buildings and more than forty chalets have been built. “Every new house that goes up seems bigger and more expensive,” says a resident of what he considers “the poor area of ??the neighborhood.”
According to the real estate agency Finques Prats, in multi-family residential housing, a square meter sells for between 2,500 and 3,000 euros; in single-family houses, between 1,800 and 2,000, and in isolated chalets, from 2,000 and up. There are few homes for sale. These days several houses are being advertised on the internet, one for half a million and another for one million euros.
Xavier Prats, manager of Finques Prats, is a resident of the neighborhood. He says that he lives in the poor area of ??a neighborhood where a large part of the owners of the large companies of Lleida and the Strip reside, most of them in chalets behind the arboretum, in properties of at least 600 square meters, houses more packaging. “The bustle – says Prats – began in 2015, with the transfer of families who previously lived in the residential area of ??Alpicat (12 kilometers from Lleida) or La Cerdera (on the outskirts of the city, near the golf course). )”.
The architect Josep Bunsesc also lives in Ciutat Jardí, who, in addition to his home, signs projects in the area. He was also surprised by the ranking. His projects are, in his words, “wood-frame houses, single-family homes; In some of them family members live and work, they are interested in a place with pleasant outdoor space, but they are neither bigger nor more expensive than the ones we build in other places, we have built more expensive ones in other places.” Many homeowners have opted for actively collecting solar energy, with solar panels, and passively, with windows to avoid using heating in winter and, in summer, shading systems and cooling systems that work with solar panels.
It is the area with the most pools in the city, 30%, with 180, and with fewer pets. According to the municipal census, 15,239 dogs and 2,332 cats live in Lleida. Adding dogs and cats, Ciutat Jardí has ??114 animals. Pardinyes, with 1,487, is the neighborhood that tops the ranking.
In the last municipal elections, in Ciutat Jardí the PSC won with 475 votes, 106 more than in 2019. The PP obtained 326, 203 more, and Vox 99, 86 more. ERC, which obtained 305 votes (lost 202), went down. Junts was the second party with the most votes, with 461, and lost 91. Comú achieved 98, 24 less. Activem, which was presented for the first time, had 132, and CUP, 73 (33 less). Of the 27 councilors of the Lleida City Council, two, the socialist Begoña Iglesias (in the government) and Xavi Estrada (ERC), in the opposition, live in Ciutat Jardí. With several interruptions due to poor telephone coverage (one of the neighbors’ complaints), Begoña Iglesias defines it as a “well-off neighborhood, with a high quality of life that every city would like to have, with a discreet life.”
So discreet is it that it was chosen to hide some marijuana plantations. In July, the National Police dismantled eight plantations in two high-end chalets and arrested two Albanian men in this operation.
