The Mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the councillor for the Eixample district, Jordi Martí, the councillor for Child, Youth and Elderly People’s Welfare, Joan Ramon Riera, and the councillor for Housing and Renovation, Lucía Martín, have handed over the keys to thirty families and cohabitation units that, from today, will begin to move into the officially protected development built by the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation in Barcelona (IMHAB).
The Comte Borrell 159 development is in the area known as Nova Esquerra in the Eixample district, where public housing has not traditionally been built. This development is part of the City Council’s objective to create protected housing in all the districts throughout the city. In fact, in this block of IMHAB homes, another development is being built with 47 homes with services for elderly people, and another development of 49 homes in Carrer Alí Bei, in the Fort Pienc district, also with services for elderly people is ready for the keys to be handed over. By the end of the term of office, public housing in the Eixample district will have increased from 40 to 400 units.
Today the keys have been handed over to the majority of new neighbours of the Comte Borrell 159 development, which has a total of 35 homes. The apartments have been distributed taking into account the needs of various collectives: ten are general, nine for people under 35 years old, three for single-parent families, seven for neighbours with links to the district and, finally, one home for a person with disability. Three apartments have also been reserved for special contingencies and two for emergencies. 70% of the selected people are women and pay an average of €400 per month. The maximum amount is €509.71 and the minimum is €176.32, an amount that will never exceed 30% of the family unit’s income.
All the homes in this development have two bedrooms and between 54 and 69 m2. One of the homes is also adapted and accessible for people with disability. As well as the homes, the building has 22 parking spaces and a playgroup on the ground floor and mezzanine.
The City Council has focused on sustainability for the construction of the public housing. All the homes in the Comte Borrell development have an A energy certificate, the most efficient category. The hot water and heating work with aerothermal heating, a silent technology that requires little maintenance and uses renewable energies.
Promote public housing
Over the last few years, Barcelona City Council has worked to increase the public housing stock in the city, which in 2015 was only 1%. In three months, IMHAB has tendered over one thousand apartments in 13 developments. These tenders add up to a budget of 133 million euros and make IMHAB the institution that invested most in public works in 2020.
In 2015, the public housing stock had 6,000 homes and it has currently been expanded to 10,000. The City Council continues working to expand it further and currently has 73 active developments, 18 of which are finished, 24 under construction, 25 in the preliminary development stage and six plot reservations.
In March an open day will be held at the new Alí Bei housing development, in the Eixample district, with 49 homes with services for elderly people and 10 other homes. And over the next few months, the foundation stone will be laid for six developments amounting to 505 homes in various districts throughout the city.