The Spanish government has launched the new Casa 47 portal – a platform operated by the state-owned housing and land company, which is starting with 800 residential properties and will soon offer 1,500 distributed throughout the country. According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, this new tool brings the country closer to a model in which access to decent housing is not a privilege for a few, but a right for all residents.
As he stressed, there is “empirical evidence” showing that the Housing Law is working, helping to control rental prices and increasing supply. In Barcelona, for example, prices for new rental contracts have fallen by 4.7%, while in Gipuzkoa they have decreased by 4%.
How the Casa 47 portal will work
Through the portal, users will be able to access “quickly and transparently” all public housing announcements (open, upcoming, under review and already resolved) or view information on each announcement: available apartments, type of housing, location, deadlines and the requirements that must be met in order to apply.
The Casa 47 portal includes a search engine with a preliminary simulator that will allow citizens to find out which calls and housing properties they can apply for based on their circumstances. All properties will be affordable, rental contracts will run for between 14 and 75 years, and allocation procedures will be carried out in the presence of a notary. Rental prices will take into account the economic situation in each municipality, meaning that tenants will never have to spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
More information about the Spanish rental market and available services can be found in the section on renting property in Spain.
Public housing supply is expected to increase
After more than 120,000 housing properties were mobilised and a further 2,800 were put out to tender in the first quarter – the largest volume in the past 18 years – the government’s objective is to substantially increase the supply available through this portal every quarter.
