Housing: PSC lets itself get dragged along by ERC and Comuns again

PSC has once again given in to its partners from ERC and Comuns on a key issue for Barcelona: the controversial 30% public housing quota in new constructions. Despite criticism from developers and property owners, PSC has decided to keep the quota. This is a measure whose only consensus has been that it further reduces the available supply.

The quota, which requires developers to allocate 30% (thirty percent) of units as protected housing, has had clear adverse effects on Barcelona's real estate market. Instead of encouraging housing construction, it has halted many private projects. Despite complaints from the sector, which had already warned about the "unfeasibility" of this measure for small projects, PSC has preferred to keep it.

This stance has made clear the influence of ERC and Comuns in decisions regarding housing policy. In Generalitat, for example, PSC has adopted Comuns's housing policy, whose credentials in Barcelona were already nonexistent. More specifically, the socialists have adopted the narrative that the market is saturated due to speculation, not because of population concentration.

The impact on the most vulnerable

Keeping this measure has had negative consequences for the most vulnerable sectors of society. Even though more than 40,000 families registered last year in the Register of Applicants for VPO, the lack of flexibility in the regulations has left many without a response. In addition, the paralysis of private projects has shifted investments to other municipalities with more flexible regulations.

In any case, it is essential to keep something essential in mind: interventionism harms the most vulnerable in the medium and long term. The reason is as simple as the fact that they do not have the liquidity to overcome the market's obstacles. ESADE, for example, already warned in 2021 that price caps harmed the poorest because they caused the lowest-quality apartments to reach the price ceiling.