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Barcelona gives land to CCOO y UGT to build 1,500 protected homes
Barcelona will bring CCOO y UGT into the construction of protected housing on municipal land. The City Council has agreed with the two unions on a programme to promote 1,500 protected homes over the next ten years, using public plots that will remain city property.
The first step will come before the end of 2026. The city council plans to make three plots available to the programme, located in Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and Horta-Guinardó, where the first 179 homes can be developed.
The chosen model will be the surface rights system. The City Council retains ownership of the land and grants its use for a period of 75 years so that officially protected housing can be built. In this way, the land is not sold or removed from municipal assets.
CCOO and UGT will not directly construct all the buildings. The unions will act as intermediaries to mobilise cooperatives and organisations capable of carrying out the developments. UGT will work through its cooperative Llar Unió Catalònia, while CCOO will select cooperatives to participate in the various projects.
The homes will be subject to the requirements for officially protected housing and will be allocated to people who meet the conditions established for access to this type of housing. The details of each development, their timelines and specific financial conditions will be defined as the plots are assigned.
The agreement also revives a form of collaboration that Barcelona had already explored in the past. The City Council had signed protocols with trade union organisations to use municipal land for protected developments, some of them also through 75-year surface rights.
The new programme adds to other approaches the municipal government is using to increase the supply of affordable housing without relying solely on developments built directly by the City Council. Cooperatives, foundations and social organisations are already involved in projects developed on public land.
The figure of 1,500 homes represents the target for an entire decade, so it does not mean the immediate addition of 1,500 flats to the protected housing stock. The first concrete reference is the 179 homes planned on the three plots that must be launched before the end of this year.
For Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and Horta-Guinardó, these first projects will also serve as a test of the new model. Based on their development, the City Council and unions will need to identify new plots until the agreed target for the next ten years is reached.