Santi López bought a year and a half ago some 87 m2 flats on Calle Salvany in Sabadell. Two bedrooms, bathroom, toilet, American kitchen, large windows, well insulated… Totally suitable for living there. Twelve years earlier, the premises were a bicycle shop which ended up being sold and converted into housing. Advised by an architect, López rehabilitated the kitchen, the bathrooms and the facade and, when he was ready to process the change of use to housing, he encountered a “no” from the City Council’s Urban Planning department from Sabadell. And there the odyssey began. one more
The Projects and Management Platform 2015, made up of experts in the real estate sector and which pursues the objective of promoting the change of use from premises to housing, has several open fronts in town councils such as that of l’Hospitalet, Terrassa or Barcelona to avoid the eviction of tenants living in old premises converted into flats with all the measures of habitability. During the last six years, they have managed 40 files throughout Catalonia. Its spokesperson, the engineer and API José MarÃa Coderch, demands that “the housing law of 20 years ago be made more flexible, which does not cover the current social demand for small, low-rise, more economical homes”.
“I was verbally told that yes, that they would give me the change of use, but in the end I only received negatives. They tell me that there can’t be homes in the basements and that, in addition, it’s in a block with two entrances, one on Avinguda de Barberà , considered a commercial axis”, laments Santi López. “It is registered in the Property Registry and I have paid for the documented legal acts, but the City Council’s response is inflexible.” So, in the meantime, he has to keep paying rent for a flat in Gavà , where he lives.
Sources from the Sabadell City Council argue that, in some parts of the city, such as Salvany, “the habitability regulations indicate that the change cannot be made because its planning considerations specifically reserve the ground floors for commercial premises and , legally, they cannot be converted into homes”. The same sources state that the change of use is a “simple management, as long as the rule is complied with”. In 2021, Sabadell was granted 56 planning licenses for change of use for the creation of homes and only one application was refused. And in 2022, 55 licenses were granted and three were denied.
The escalation of housing prices, especially in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, and the lowering of local shutters after the pandemic, have drawn this new scenario. Coderch insists that the town councils and the Housing Agency “should be able to transform closed premises, between 40 and 90 m2, into homes. They don’t have to be in the first commercial line, because we don’t want them to compete with local commerce, but to give a second life to these premises that end up being occupied or deteriorating”. Coderch maintains that “they are not sub-housing, but that they comply with habitability conditions”. The 2015 Projects and Management Platform is made up of architects, lawyers and real estate experts who argue that these more affordable apartments would be a “solution for single-parent families, young people or people with reduced mobility. Some municipalities, such as Sant Sadurnà d’Anoia, have recognized this opportunity and have included an exception to the regulations, but it is not the usual procedure. In other municipalities where there are already tenants living in an old converted premises, these people, despite being registered in the Land Registry and registered there, “have fewer rights than the owners of flats: problems accessing the CAP or going to school and they pay a very high VAT”, warns Coderch.
