Jaume Collboni, the Socialist Mayor of Barcelona, has presented figures showing the disastrous results of his predecessor’s flagship housing of policy requiring developers to dedicate 30pc of all new projects above a certain size to social / affordable housing: Just eight affordable homes in five years, and a total collapse in all new home building, as illustrated by the chart above.
Back in 2018 the then Mayoress of Barcelona Ada Colau and her hard Left Barcelona en Comú party introduced a policy forcing developers to dedicate 30pc of all new building and rehabilitation projects above a certain size to affordable / social housing, claiming it would lead to 334 affordable homes each year. The policy was supported at the time by current Mayor Jaume Collboni and his Socialist party, whilst critics warned it would be counterproductive.
After five years in force, the policy has turned out to be a spectacular failure, as critics said it would be. Last week Collboni announced a change of direction, and provided figures showing the results of the policy to date, which couldn’t be more damning. It’s a world-class example of bad policy.
The figures he provided show that in the five years (2019 – 2023) since the 30pc social housing quota was introduced in 2018, only 93 affordable housing units have been given planning permission as a result of the policy, and only eight have actually been built. That’s less than two per year delivered as a result of the policy, and less than 0.5pc of the number that Ada Colau suggested would be built. It’s difficult to imagine how she could have got worse results short of banning all new home building.
“Today we are making decisions to mark a turning point in housing policies, with measures that the municipal government is pushing forward to favour access to housing,” said Collboni, pictured below. “More housing is needed, and the measures we are presenting today are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they cannot afford housing.”
Catalonia’s association of architects has just published figures revealing that there were only 12 planning applications granted for social housing units in the first half of this year, more evidence that the policy has been a miserable failure.
Collapse in the supply of all new housing in Barcelona
Not only did the measure fail to deliver any social housing, it also led to a collapse in all new house building in the city, so no new housing for anybody, even those who can afford it. Here’s how City Hall explains it in polite language: “Since the approval of the 30pc social housing quota in 2018, the number of new multifamily housing construction licences on consolidated urban land has decreased. While the average in previous years was above 1,100 housing units, in recent years the average has dropped to 60 housing units.” That’s a decline of 95pc in new home building in the Catalan capital thanks the hard Left’s housing policy.
