The last year has seen the City Council step up its use of the right to first refusal, giving it preference in the acquisition of properties. The exercise of this right is used to halt speculative purchase processes, at the same time adding affordable housing to the city’s stock, particularly in more central neighbourhoods where price hikes in rents hit people hard and where it is more difficult to build new public housing due to the poor availability of sites.

Specifically, this year’s acquisitions were:

• In L’Eixample, five properties with 99 homes in all:
  Carrer de Calàbria. La Nova Esquerra de l’Eixample. 14 homes.
  Carrer de Floridablanca. Sant Antoni. 18 homes.
  Carrer de Borrell. Sant Antoni. 12 homes.
  Carrer de Balmes. La Dreta de l’Eixample. 23 homes.
  Carrer de la Diputació. La Nova Esquerra de l’Eixample. 32 homes.
• In Sants-Montjuïc:
  Carrer de Fonthonrada. El Poble-sec. 11 homes.
• In Gràcia: two properties of 17 homes.
  Carrer de Camprodon. Vila de Gràcia. 6 homes.
  Carrer del Torrent de les Flors. Vila de Gràcia. 11 homes.
• In Horta-Guinardó:
  Carrer de Mont-ral and Carrer de Letamendi. Horta. 38 homes.
• A Nou Barris:
  Carrer d’Escolapi Càncer. Torre Baró. Four properties with 198 homes.

Besides these properties, a further 13 empty homes were purchased individually in different points around the city: two in El Raval, one in Sants, one in Porta, one in Turó de la Peira, one in Les Roquetes, one in La Prosperitat, one in Trintat Nova, four in Ciutat Meridiana in Nou Barris and one in El Besòs i el Maresme, in Sant Martí.

Municipal investment here was 59.89 million euros in all, or 156,000 euros per flat on average. This includes the estimated renovation costs for each property, plus below-market sales prices between 18% and 39% lower than the current market price.