Nowadays a 20 percent unemployment rate — coupled with stricter credit rules that keep jittery bankers from lending to those who most need the money — continues to keep hundreds of thousands of people in Catalonia alone out of suitable housing.

The Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalonia’s government, is looking into ways to tackle that problem.

Housing Secretary Carme Trilla says that while housing needs have not changed, the circumstances have. When the Generalitat adopted the Law on Housing Rights in 2007 it had devised a plan to tackle a steep rise in prices of flats — at the time a whopping 300% increase in just a decade.

“That left thousands of people out of the market since during the same 10 years salaries increased at a much slower rate,” Trilla explains. “But now that apartments are cheaper those same people can still not afford them, either due to insufficient credit, unemployment or low-income jobs.”

The need for affordable houses is highlighted in the Plan Territorial Sectorial de Vivienda (PTSV) — the Territorial Plan for the Housing Sector, a law proposal drafted by Catalonia’s government.

The report says that in Catalonia 571.000 households needs some form of rent protection or housing subsidy.

As drafted the bill says the Generalitat can tackle the need for housing with a variety of measures to be implemented over the next 10 years.

Among other things, the PTSV includes the following measures:

• provide 200,000 young people with financial aid designed to allow them to move into their own apartments as opposed to living with their parents
• create 240,000 social housing units
• make an effort to provide accommodation for 40,000 elderly people
• better the living conditions of 65,000 people, mostly immigrants, who are at risk of social exclusion

Forced Rent

The most controversial aspect of the proposal is the possible enforcement of a ‘forced rent’ measure which would enable the Generalitat to — as a last resort — force property owners to rent out property that has been empty for too long.

The ‘forced rent’ measure was passed as part of the 2007 Housing Rights law.

When a property is kept empty without justification, the government puts the owner on notice. From that point he has two years to find a suitable renter, if necessary with help from local authorities.

If the landlord will not cooperate, or a suitable renter has not been found within the given period of time, the local government may force it to be leased for a period of five years at a set price.

The forced rent approach may be used in the areas with the greatest need. That includes the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan region, the urban areas of Tarragona and surrounding urban areas, and cities like Blanes, Lloret and Roses.

According to the Generalitat Blanes and Lloret de Mar alone need an additional 11,187 apartments each. Yet in reality both towns have more apartments than potential tenants.

Carles Gibert, urban planner in Blanes, says even many promotions have not resulted in the signing of more rental agreements.

“Also, we were close to an agreement with the Government over the building of 40 social housing flats,” he says “But that project has now been postponed due to a lack of financial resources.”

In Lloret it is a similar story. “We have all the apartments you would want,” Teresa Gimeno, owner of real estate agency Planella Bonet told El País. “Never before have we had this many homes on offer. What we need now is customers.” Gimeno company offers flats from 400 Euros a month.

The problem is that many people are out of work. “Without guarantees, no landlord is prepared to rent out his place,” reiterates Mata Madrenas, president of the Association of Real Estate Agents in Girona.
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Gaat U dit jaar voor het eerst, of voor de zoveelste keer, in Blanes op vakantie? Zie het stadje dan eens vanuit een heel ander perspectief. In plaats van een hotel of camping vakantie biedt Vakantie in Blanes volledig ingerichte appartement.

De gezellige appartementen, ingerichten in typisch Spaanse stijl, liggen vlak bij het mooiste strand van Blanes — aan de rand van het oude stadje.

Met restaurants, een supermarkt, warme bakkers, en een verse groenten en fruit markt om de hoek woont u bij wijzen van spreken midden tussen de dorpelingen.

Are you spending your holidays in Blanes this year? Whether you’ll do so for the first time, or you have visited Blanes many times before, we encourage you to see Blanes from a new perspective.

Blanes Costa Brava offers fully furnished self-catering vacation apartments.

These cosy apartments are very close to Blanes’ most popular beach, at the edge of the old city.

Around the corner are restaurants, a supermarket, bakeries and a daily fruits- and vegetables market.

To appreciate Villa Cooper’s unique appeal you should realize that Blanes – or at least the part of Blanes that tourists care about most – is divided in two parts:

• The Old Town
  This is where you can see and taste the local flavor — the small, sunlit streets, the historic village filled reminders of its fishing and shipbuilding years, the locals, the tapas bars, the Sardana dancing spots…
• The Tourist District
  Here, among some of the town’s newer high rise apartment buildings, are the hotels — most of the town’s hotels, in fact. This is where the discos are, and where the nightlife is. Bars and hole-in-the-wall restaurants promise a taste from home lest you forget your British, Irish, German or Dutch drinking habits. Tourist shops are interspersed with video game- and gambling galleries. There’s even a Dutch supermarket. Further south, there are campgrounds as well.

There used to be some hotels in the old part of town, but savvy owners have converted them to apartments — most of which come with hefty price tags.

Most tourists in Blanes stay in the tourist district, in hotels or at the popular campings. Many hardly ever leave the area.

Others prefer the ‘look and feel’ of the old village, and you will find many tourists who — year after year — rent one of several self-catering apartments.

Enter Villa Cooper — named thus because at one time there really was a villa by that name. Today, Villa Cooper consists of two locations:

• Townhouse
  A historic building at a fantastic location just a hundred metres or so from La Palomera — the rock formation that marks the official beginning of the Costa Brava.
• Porta Nova Apartments
  Situated at a stone’s throw from the old church, and at about 100 metres from the beach.

Contact Information

[Unfortunately, this business is phasing out. See Blanes Costa Brava self catering apartments instead]