The northern region of Navarre has come up with an innovative new plan to help solve its housing crisis – transform abandoned historical buildings into new shared housing complexes.
Much like the rest of Spain, Navarre is suffering from a severe housing crisis, with skyrocketing rents and not enough properties on the market.
It is estimated that the region currently has a deficit of around 700,000 housing units.
As a result, Navarra’s regional housing minister Begoña Alfaro has announced a new radical plan to help the situation, by rehabilitating unique buildings, such as farmhouses, old mills, convents, railway stations, and old military barracks.
This is all part of the region’s new draft Law on Collaborative Housing, which seeks to offer “an affordable, stable and non-speculative alternative to the traditional market”.
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They will not be transformed into traditional homes, however. These residential complexes will be owned by a cooperative made up of members with the right to individual and long-term use of the properties and common areas.
These buildings will include interior living spaces of a minimum of 30 m² and must have at least one private bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.
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The requirement for a private kitchen will be waived when there is a communal kitchen sufficient to serve all users.
By doing this, the regional government hopes to “expand the supply of affordable housing and offer alternatives to the traditional model of ownership and rental, aimed at responding to new social, demographic and housing challenges”.
It will be a novel system, somewhere between traditional permanent private ownership and renting.
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“We want to incorporate a new way of understanding housing. Because we’re not just talking about a place to live, but about communities that share spaces and projects, who are committed to a model that is supportive, sustainable, and far removed from speculation,” explained Alfaro.
As well as housing in unique buildings, the project will also include homes intended for people between 50 and 70 years old, with care, social and health spaces.
According to the government, the new regulation will make collaborative living an essential element of residential projects. This means buildings will be required to reserve at least 10 percent of their usable floor space for common areas.
This could include community kitchens, libraries, laundries, study or work rooms, gyms, workshops, temporary accommodation for family members, care facilities, collective childcare etc. Everything will be regulated through a collective agreement.
In this way, the draft law hopes to transform not only the types of buildings we live in, but also the way in which we live and move toward a more cohesive and collaborative future.
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The law also sets out certain measures to prevent speculation and limits economic returns.
We want to “respond to the social and demographic changes facing Navarre, marked by an ageing population, the increase in single-person households and loneliness, as well as the difficulties in accessing housing because of rising prices and insufficient residential supply”, Alfaro explained.
Economist Ignacio Ezquiaga told news paper El Diario that Navarre’s model of public housing policies should be considered “a model to follow” by other regions in Spain.
Navarre is at the forefront of regions trying to solve the housing crisis and is the first one that is been somewhat successful. Last year it led the way in construction of subsidised housing and built twice as many units per capita as Madrid.
More than 20 percent of its new homes is subsidised.
According to experts, one of the reasons Navarre is one of the few places in Spain showing signs of recovery is that it has long been committed to promoting public housing policies and also has a registry of landlords who own several properties, as well as one of the first laws on regulating room rentals.
