VIDEO. Josep Maria Montaner: “The census of empty flats is not about producing figures. It’s being carried out to detect uninhabited homes and try to get them into the city’s stock of affordable rented housing” .

In all, visits were made to 34,852 flats selected via a prior exercise which crossed data on water consumption and the municipal register to come up with a list of hypothetically empty homes. When the field work was carried out that figure was narrowed down to a total of 3,609 uninhabited flats.

The data from the 17 neighbourhoods has been passed onto the corresponding municipal departments as follows:

428 addresses where illegal tourist lets were detected. Information passed on the Area of Urban Planning to take appropriate action.

664 buildings in need of renovation work. To be advised by the Municipal Housing and Renovation Institute regarding existing building renovation programmes.

The research involved in identifying owners of properties has helped distinguish between flats belonging to individual owners or those owning a few properties, and those belonging to banks, investment companies, financial entities or the SAREB, Spain’s bad bank.

Flats which have been uninhabited for over two years and which belong to private owners have been referred to the municipal rental programme so that owners can be informed of the advantages of the programme. Where uninhabited flats belong to property management entities and investment companies, the corresponding steps have been taken to fine them as the law on the right to housing states this is the maximum period a home can remain empty.

The project was called for by social entities and started at the end of 2016. The aim is for the census to have been completed in all 73 city neighbourhoods by the start of 2019. The neighbourhoods already covered by the census are: Trinitat Nova, Baró de Viver, Bon Pastor, Besòs i el Maresme, Vila de Gràcia, Raval, Porta, Camp de l’Arpa del Clot, Dreta de l’Eixample, Carmel, Poble-sec, Prosperitat, Sant Antoni, Vallbona, Torre Baró, Ciutat Meridiana and Nova Esquerra de l’Eixample.

Field work for the census of empty flats in Barcelona is being carried by groups made up of people from employment plans run by Barcelona Activa and the Catalan Employment Service (SOC).