The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, focused the start of his mandate on the housing crisis and promised before Parliament a colossal investment to build social housing, with 1.1 billion per year. According to their calculations, this figure would allow the Generalitat to obtain up to 50,000 new public addresses by 2030, which would represent a very significant increase in the Catalan public park. This figure is in fact very similar to that agreed with the Commons in the agreement for Illa’s investiture.
This is, as the president explained, the “largest mobilization of public resources ever carried out by an autonomous community in terms of housing”, which would place Catalonia as a benchmark in this area. In addition, it would be accompanied by a reserve of public land to be made available to municipalities, a new impetus to public-private collaboration and more aid for access to housing.
“The current housing situation is untenable. Access to housing, particularly for young people, is a country’s duty. We must all move from words to action, the government first,” assured Illa, in a speech at the start of the general policy debate in Parliament, very focused on economic issues.
The housing debate is one of the hot topics, not only in Catalonia, due to the increase in rental prices and the difficulties in accessing mortgage loans. The Government of Illa itself presented on Tuesday the updated data on the application of the Housing Law in the community, where a reduction in the price of rent was recorded for the first time in almost three years in the municipalities where it was applied.
The first of 1.1 billion euros allocated solely for housing construction is unprecedented in the history of Catalonia, where no budget has reached this figure, even for all housing policies. Indeed, the social housing stock is currently estimated at 55,000 apartments, which means that the Illa project would double this figure.
