Housing Plan 2025 - 2032

Housing Glossary

You will find information here on all topics relating to housing in Barcelona

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Accrued interest

The interest applied as a penalisation when the debtor does not comply with repayment obligations. The amount must be established in the contract.

Active supermortgage

This allows the client to choose their loan's benchmark index (MIBOR at three months, six months or a year) so that payment can benefit from lower interest rates sooner.

Adaptable instalment

Characteristic of UCI superloans that allow the borrower to not pay one instalment a year for the first three years if there are problems due to holidays, extraordinary expenses, etc.

Advanced cancellation fee

A commission arising from the financial risk involved in the advanced cancellation of an operation. The applied commission compensates the financial institution for its financial losses.

AEDE

Direct state aid for paying the deposit on a property.

Affordable housing

Group of social housing or dwellings from social renovation projects that are sold or rented at below-market prices.

Affordable rent

The cost of renting these dwellings is below market prices after being included in operations concerning the rented flat pool, social renovation or social housing promotions.

Amortisation

Payment made to repay a loan.

Amortisation period

The duration of the loan. The contract establishes the date of the first and last payments. The longer the period, the lower the payments are, but the higher the interest. You therefore pay more in the end. The monthly instalment should not exceed 35% of your net income.

API

Estate agent. A qualified professional who acts as an intermediary between the two interested parties to facilitate the signing of a real estate contract, which can be a rental agreement, a sales agreement or another similar contract. They usually charge a percentage of the sales price as compensation or commission.

Applicant

A citizen who makes a registration application to the Barcelona Social Housing Applicants Registry, and who represents the other members of the dwelling unit included in the application.

APR

Annual Equivalent Rate. Effective annual cost of the mortgage in terms of interest, commissions and the repayment period. To compare loans, it is not enough to just look at the lowest APR, you also have to compare the conditions, the repayment period and the distribution of instalment payments.

Arbitri municipal de plusvàlua

Former denomination of the capital gains tax on landed property.

Assessment

The value of a dwelling certified by a specialised assessment company, in accordance with the mortgage market law. This certificate not only indicates the real value of the property, it also serves as a reference for obtaining the necessary financing.

Authorisation

Document in which the owner authorises the tenant to carry out building work in the dwelling's interior.

Housing offices only offer face-to-face assistance by prior appointment, so check out the “Housing calls you” service here to receive the most appropriate personalised assistance. If you also need assistance in energy rights, book an appointment with an energy-advice point (PAE) by clicking here. On the other hand, if you reside in an IMHAB public dwelling you can consult our contact, management and processing channels here.

Barcelona City Council has identified housing as one of its priorities. For this reason, it has begun a period of reflection and work to develop a new strategic framework to reorganise, define and establish the axes of work in this area.

For this reason, the previous Plan for the Right to Housing in Barcelona 2016-2025 is being evaluated and closed in order to launch a new one: the Housing Plan 2025-2032. The context has changed a lot and the recent legislative, social and economic changes make it necessary to rethink the housing policy with a current and future perspective.

For this reason, it is committed to designing a new working framework that will allow the development of this Council’s housing policy in the coming years, while providing adequate responses to current problems and anticipating future solutions.

To this end, work is being carried out internally and externally to make an initial diagnosis of the housing situation in Barcelona, based on the data that can be provided by different sources, such as the annual and review reports of the previous Housing Plan, the studies of the Metropolitan Housing Observatory, the Metropolitan Urban Development Master Plan or primary data from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The objectives and methodology for carrying out this participatory process are also being developed, as is the voice of other institutions and professionals in the sector, as well as the entities and associations involved.

In short, we are working intensively to develop a new strategic framework, agreed by all the actors involved in the sector, in order to bring out the complicity between administrations and social actors linked to housing. In this new framework, the objective is clear: to consolidate and guarantee the right to housing as a fundamental right.