For the first time, the Government of Catalonia is taking on the challenge of affordable rental housing, transforming urban planning in order to serve the interests of all citizens and not just those of land owners. The Department of Territory, through the Catalan Soil Institute (Incasòl) and the Catalan Housing Agency, is tasked with promoting the construction of 10,000 homes this year to increase the public rental housing stock and build the sustainable neighborhoods of the future.
Rethinking the urban planning of sectors in cities such as Lleida, Sant Cugat, Figueres, Abrera or Lliçà d’Amunt and qualifying new ones can help recover the idea of ​​a networked Catalonia, with important universities located outside Barcelona and new networks of fundamental resources, such as trains and water.
What resources do we have? There are many tenants who do not know that the deposit they deposit with Incasòl is, by law, used for the construction of affordable housing. Incasòl is able to deposit 60% of rental deposits, and many more in the future. This year, it is estimated that it will be able to invest around 100 million euros in the production of affordable housing. With these resources, this year more than 2,000 flats will be programmed in 43 actions in cities such as Granollers, Reus, Girona, Malgrat de Mar, Figueres, Mollet… Some of these homes will innovate with prefabricated methods and sustainable materials and generate activity and employment for technicians, installers, carpenters, laborers and craftsmen of the 21st century.
An extraordinary sensitivity is expected from the architectural teams to design sustainable projects and extensions of dignified and integrated cities such as the neighborhood of Torresana in Terrassa, open to the greenery of Torrebonica, or the neighborhood of Ronda Masia Nova in Sant Pere de Ribes, with passive designs and great care to improve the squares and streets around them.
Incasòl also accumulates land reserves that, in collaboration with councils, private developers and cooperatives, will be constituted as surface rights for the construction of affordable flats, as in the old Montesa factory in Esplugues, the neighborhood of Parc de l’Alba in Cerdanyola or Begues.
Unfortunately, you can still see hundreds of boarded-up buildings and flats or concrete skeletons in Catalan cities that were half-baked in the last real estate crisis. From Incasòl we have proposed in the very short term to acquire buildings that have been empty for years, from owners who have not been able to invest in them, from banking entities or the Sareb, in order to accommodate families who are now on the table of emergency Now mobilizing these floors of the empty housing stock allows, at the same time, to rehabilitate urban centers before transforming rustic land.
The new generation of affordable flats will help young people to emancipate themselves, the elderly to age with dignity, and families to have a social cushion in times when the environment is very volatile. The affordable house is the basis of personal stability and the stuff of which fair cities are made.
The gear of affordable housing production needs to be re-greased. In addition to being a constitutional right, the construction of affordable housing is essential to preserve the urban identity of Catalonia.
