Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday unveiled the first portal (source in Spanish) for the state public housing stock, launched by the State Housing and Land Agency CASA 47. The platform starts with 800 homes available and, according to La Moncloa, a further 1,500 spread across the country will be added “very soon”.
During the closing session of the event “More public housing, more affordable housing”, held in Madrid, Sánchez said the aim is to make it easier to access housing at affordable prices and lamented that “for far too many people, looking for a home has turned into an obstacle course”.
What is the CASA 47 portal?
The portal will allow users to consult the available public housing stock and apply for a home according to each applicant’s needs and financial capacity. According to Sánchez, quoted in a statement (source in Spanish), the procedure will be “swift and transparent” and will allow people to know at all times how the allocation process is progressing.
The initial offer will be expanded with new homes and flats becoming available every quarter, as part of the government’s goal of increasing the state stock of affordable public housing.
What will the rents be?
Rent levels will take into account the characteristics of each home and the economic reality of each municipality and region. The government also stipulates that those who access these homes will not have to spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
Sánchez has described these rents as “affordable rent” and stressed the need to achieve “realistic rents for real wages”. Contracts will have an initial term of 14 years, with the possibility of being extended up to 75 years, the prime minister explained.
Will the homes remain part of the public stock?
One of the key aspects highlighted by Sánchez is the permanent protection of CASA 47 homes. The prime minister has pledged that they will be protected “forever” and cannot be removed from the public stock when the economic or political cycle changes.
Sánchez criticised the fact that in recent decades protected housing has lost that status and insisted that “something like this must never happen again”. In his view, “what is built through everyone’s efforts must remain at the service of everyone“.
Why does the government defend intervening in the market?
The prime minister explicitly defended public intervention in the housing market. “Some will say that this measure is ‘interventionist’ in the housing market. It is, and proudly so, because the market is broken,” he said.
Sánchez also pointed out that the government has multiplied by eight the budget allocated to housing and highlighted the implementation of the Housing Law in designated high-pressure areas.
According to his figures, more than nine million people live in one of the 317 municipalities designated as high-pressure areas. He also cited Barcelona, where he says the price of new contracts has fallen by 4.7% since it was designated a high-pressure area, and several municipalities in Gipuzkoa, where prices are said to have dropped by almost 4%.
How many affordable homes does the government plan to mobilise?
The government places CASA 47 within a broader strategy to build and mobilise affordable housing. Sánchez recalled that more than 120,000 affordable rental homes have already been mobilised and that during the first quarter of this year 2,800 new homes were put out to tender, the largest volume of public tendering in 18 years, according to his figures.
The 2026–2030 State Housing Plan (source in Spanish), approved in April, has a budget of 7 billion euros, three times more than the previous plan.
What role will the authorities play?
The Minister for Housing and the Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, also quoted in the statement, argued that the allocation process must be public and said that the aim is to prevent a repeat of cases in which a social housing development is awarded to “councillors, municipal architects or relatives”.
Rodríguez also highlighted the recovery of Sareb’s assets to make available more than 42,000 homes and 2,500 plots of land, as well as the tendering of almost 2,500 homes currently being processed.
Finally, the minister urged regional governments and town councils to “pull together in the same direction” and said she was confident of also reaching agreements in parliament.