The city of Barcelona, and specifically the Gràcia district, gain a new element of social and affordable public rental housing, in the form of a property which the City Council has purchased at Carrer Torrent de les Flors 142 by means of the pre-emptive right and right of first refusal, an instrument which gives the City Council a preferential right to carry out a purchase at the price agreed between seller and buyer.
Last weekend an open day was held to display this building of eleven homes. In total, 137 visits were made between Friday and Saturday. The institutional visit included the presence of the Councillor for Housing and Renovation, Lucía Martín; the Councillor for the Gràcia district, Eloi Badia; the Head of the Barcelona Municipal Housing and Renovation Institute, Gerard Capó; the Barcelona City Council’s Head of Housing, Javier Burón; and representatives of the neighbours’ associations of La Salut, Passeig de Sant Joan and the Vila de Gràcia.
“The purchase of homes is a strategic policy of the City Council to increase the public housing stock in the city. The policy of purchasing via the pre-emptive right and right of first refusal is very important because it helps us to obtain housing in neighbourhoods where we do not have municipal land and also helps us to combat speculation and gentrification,” said Lucía Martín.
The building is a brand-new development with eleven homes, ten of which have two bedrooms and floor areas between 60 and 75 m2. The remaining home has three bedrooms and a floor area of 120 m2. The building also includes ten parking spaces and three storerooms which will be offered to the awardees of the homes.
The investment for the purchase of the Torrent de les Flors building has been 4.9 million euros, 18% below market price, that is, below the average price per square metre in the sales carried out in the Vila de Gràcia during the previous months. “If this property had been bought by a private investor, the rents would be twice what will be paid by the families who are going to live here,” the Councillor added. The interested persons will have to register in the Register of Applicants for Official Protection Homes of Barcelona, and the award process of the homes in the Torrent de les Flors building will be carried out shortly.
Social and affordable housing
Of the eleven homes comprising the Torrent de les Flors building, nine will be assigned to the Barcelona Register of Applicants for Official Protection Homes (RSHPOB) and the monthly rent will be between 440 and 550 euros.
As is habitual, some of the homes assigned to the RSHPOB have been reserved for specific collectives: three apartments for people under 35, one apartment for a single-parent family, two apartments for residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods (the Vila, Camp d’en Grassot Gràcia Nova and La Salut), one apartment for a large family, and two apartments for general allocation. The two remaining apartments will be assigned to the Emergency Board for families who have suffered or are suffering an eviction process. In this case, the price of the social rent will be determined on the basis of the incomes of the awardee families.
Enlarging the public housing stock in the city and in the neighbourhood
This property is the second one purchased by the Barcelona City Council in the Gràcia district, increasing the stock of affordable housing in the city and also in a particularly dense area where it is very difficult to build new public housing due to the shortage of land. The Councillor for the Gràcia District, Eloi Badia, said “Gràcia is a very gentrified district and is suffering considerable rent increases. It is very important to have affordable housing in these types of districts. We can say that today is a celebration day because for us it represents a turning of the page.”
Apart from this building in Carrer Torrent de les Flors, the Council has also bought a building with six homes in Carrer Camprodon. This purchase was also carried out by means of the pre-emptive right and right of first refusal and it cost 1.34 million euros, 39% less than the market price. Of the six homes, three are already inhabited and the other three are being conditioned ready to be awarded to families waiting for a home from the Emergency Board.
To date, the City Council has purchased 22 properties around the city, totalling 401 homes added to the public housing stock. In addition, it is preparing other projects in Gràcia which will represent 173 new homes: specifically, these projects are a new building at Avinguda Vallcarca 93-95, with 14 homes, which is now in the final stage of works; the Antiga Quirón development, with 83 homes with services for senior citizens and 14 temporary accommodations; and two more promotions resulting from the ESAL agreement with the social and cooperative housing sector. Here, the Ruderal cooperative will create a co-housing project of 25 units and the SALAS and Nou Lloc foundations will promote a building with 37 protected rental homes.
With these actions, the City Council maintains its commitment to protecting affordable public housing in the various districts of the city, enlarging the stock, preventing speculation and the expulsion of families from the neighbourhoods, rehabilitating properties and dignifying the homes. Not counting these promotions, the current stock of social and affordable protected-rental housing in Gràcia consists of some 250 homes, including public rental homes and private properties acquired and managed by the Council, a figure which represents 71% more than in the year 2015 (144 homes).