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Catalunya will use AI to detect empty flats and try to bring them back to the market
The Generalitat is working with local councils on a new system based on artificial intelligence to more accurately identify where empty homes are concentrated in Catalunya. The aim is to have a much more reliable overview of the unoccupied housing stock from next year and use it to try to bring some of these flats back onto the market.
The project is being developed by the Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics a l’Enginyeria (CIMNE), which began work in May on behalf of the Generalitat. The centre itself describes the project as a tool for predicting empty homes using artificial intelligence and integrating different databases.
The model will combine information that has so far been scattered. The planned data sources include water and electricity consumption, the municipal register, and on-site checks carried out by some councils. By cross-referencing these, the system will be able to indicate which properties show signs of actually being unoccupied.
The main difference lies in the time needed to obtain this information. Until now, officially determining whether a home was empty could require on-site inspections and much slower municipal procedures. The new model aims to help councils identify suspicious situations more quickly before carrying out the necessary checks.
The Govern's goal is to create, from 2027, a map showing the prevalence of empty homes, making it possible to see in which municipalities and areas the phenomenon is concentrated. There has been no announcement that this will become a public map with the individual addresses of each flat, but rather a tool to guide the housing policies of the Generalitat and local councils.
The announced strategy also does not put sanctions at the forefront. The director general of Housing, Jordi Mas, has argued that the data should mainly be used to contact owners and offer incentives to help bring properties back onto the market, rather than resorting to penalties or measures such as expropriation.
For Barcelona, where finding affordable housing remains especially difficult, having more precise data will make it easier to distinguish between truly abandoned flats and homes that are temporarily unoccupied due to a move, inheritance, renovation, or other circumstances. The tool, therefore, does not automatically classify a home with low consumption as empty: it is the combination of different indicators that will allow for more accurate identification.
The real impact will come when the map is finished and the authorities decide what to do with the information. If the system manages to locate homes that have been unused for long periods, councils will have a new way to approach owners and try to bring them back into the residential market in areas where finding a flat is most difficult.