The houses in C/ Pons i Gallarza are from numbers 105 to 117. Along with the corner house at C/ Renart, 51, they form of set of homes in the old quarter of Sant Andreu, classed as a building conservation area.

The City Council purchased the eight buildings from the company Vermota SL for 745,000 euros. In addition to the purchase price, the cost of conservation work will be around 290,000 euros. The homes will become part of the city’s public housing stock.

The acquisition responds to demands from local residents, who raised the alarm two years ago when they discovered the houses had been bought by a vulture fund. This meant the seven families living there faced the danger of being forced from their homes, with the old quarter of Sant Andreu also in need of protection from another episode of property speculation.

Pioneering mixed urban tenant-management model

This is the first mixed urban tenant-management project within the public rental housing stock. The arrangement is a contract whereby the owner grants the use of the housing for a certain length of time in exchange for the tenants taking on the renovation and maintenance work agreed.

In this case, as a mixed model of tenant-management and property rental introduced by the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Housing (IMHAB), a new contract will combine the rental and tenant-management stages with a variable minimum income.