The conversion of obsolete offices can become in the coming years the new land pool for building homes in Barcelona, ??once the obligation to allocate 30% of each development to social housing, which has stopped these changes in recent years, is eliminated. of use, said the real estate experts gathered in The District room.
“There is a lot of money interested in investing in housing, but regulation is contributing to increasing the imbalance between what is produced and what is needed,” explained the president of the show, Juan Velayos. Now, however, they foresee a change. “The new mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, explained at a lunch at the congress that solving the housing problem is the priority of his mandate and that he is aware that to do so he must look for all ways to increase supply,” he added.
Thus, the Ecology, Urban Planning, Infrastructure, Mobility and Housing commission of the City Council approved on Tuesday with the votes of PSC, JxCat and the PP to begin the modification of the urban planning regulations that require reserving 30% of the built surface for protected housing in Barcelona. “This obligation has stopped all development activity in the city,” recalled the president of the APCE, Xavier Vilajoana, “in exchange for providing only 52 social homes since 2018.”
According to the real estate agents, the City Council’s option is probably to allow the developers to pay the value of that 30% to the City Council, which can invest it in directly promoting social housing. “It will be one more tax,” they acknowledge, which will make the price of new construction apartments in Barcelona even more expensive, which now, according to APCE data, already exceeds €7,400/m2. Furthermore, the key is that comprehensive rehabilitation could be excluded from the payment of this tax in order to accelerate these actions and so that the aid now offered by the European Next Generation funds is not lost.
The conversion of offices already allowed the city’s residential park to increase before the 2008-2013 financial crisis, when “500,000 m2 of city offices were transformed into homes and hotels,” recalled Oriol Barrachina, president of the consulting firm Cushman.
The promoters ask that the city undertake regulatory changes that allow the implementation of new residential formulas, such as coliving, small apartments in buildings with large areas of common services, from work spaces to lounges, gym or laundry. According to David Martínez, CEO of Aedas Homes, the administration must provide “flexibility” to change the uses of old obsolete properties, both the offices on the outskirts and the secondary and small-sized shopping centers, which have lost favor with the big fashion brands, consumers and investors. “I foresee the upcoming creation of new housing models such as coliving or student living, built on non-residential land,” he added.
David Vila, CEO of Renta Corporación, also stressed that rehabilitation is one of the best options given the lack of land, but in his opinion the urban planning regulations “must be adapted to the new mentality of the population and their concept of city; “Society has different needs and we must give them answers.”
Carmina Ganyet, Colonial’s corporate general manager, recognizes that this transformation not only solves social needs but is “a great opportunity for investors”.
The real estate agents gathered at The District also agreed that the residential sector is the only one in which the demand from users and investors currently far exceeds the supply, so no price reductions are expected.
“In Spain, 200,000 new homes are created every year and only 100,000 homes are built,” said Enrique Martínez Laguna, executive director of CBRE Spain. “There is little land and it is very expensive, and developers need clarity on the return to be able to assume the risk of building new homes.”
