Madrid introduces a single phone number for faults in 24 affordable rental developments

The main new feature will be ending the fragmented management among different companies. Each development will be in the hands of a single provider responsible for coordinating all the building’s shared services, from a technical fault to a problem with the lift.

The same company will also take care of cleaning and gardening. Residents will have a direct telephone switchboard to report incidents to the company responsible for resolving them, avoiding the need to find out which provider is responsible for each problem.

The system, known as facility management, will be gradually rolled out in the 24 new developments that the municipal company will add to its public housing stock. Implementation will begin with properties handed over from January next year.

EMVS Madrid will thus leave much of the daily management in the hands of these operators and will focus on supervising and auditing the work. Its role will be to check that incidents are resolved correctly and that companies meet the quality standards set for public buildings.

The change comes after strong growth in the municipal housing stock. Over the past seven years, EMVS Madrid has increased its number of public homes by around 60% after promoting and building more than 3,650 new flats, an expansion that also multiplies the repairs and maintenance tasks it must manage.

For those moving into public housing from 2027, the change will be most noticeable when a domestic problem arises: a broken communal door, a lift out of service or a cleaning issue will all have a single point of contact. The City Council aims for this simplification to reduce waiting times and make the daily maintenance of new buildings a much less bureaucratic process.