Mesures per al foment de l'habitatge a les grans ciutats

The author points out that, owing to the exhaustion of land available for development and an aging housing stock, the only way forward in housing policy in the City of Barcelona and the other municipalities of the Barcelonès comarca is to implement programs affecting the existing stock. The objectives of the Pla d’Habitatge 1998-2001 (the current housing plan) with respect to this area should be to create sites for new development through the renovation of obsolete urban areas, to maintain and improve the existing stock, and to facilitate the acquisition of second-hand homes. The aim of land use policies should be to ensure that an adequate supply of land suitable for the development of controlled price public housing be generated by growth management on the local level. The role of state intervention in this scenario should take the form of subsidies together with a more flexible approach with respect to the housing types authorised in the context of this kind of public development. The Generalitat should be responsible for obtaining land for development through fiscal measures which penalise properties whose use does not correspond with their planning category. Apart from the question of generating land for development, housing policy should also favour the rental market, incorporating renovated empty housing into this market, and implementing measures directed at specific social groups, such as the elderly and young people, to facilitate access to housing in some cases and to free up the occupied stock in others.