At the Regional Hospital of Vielha, the capital of the Val d’Aran, they cannot find a medical specialist in dialysis because The rent for a 60 square meter apartment can exceed 2,000 euros per month. This example serves to gauge the situation faced by the housing market in the regions of the Catalan Pyrenees.
Beyond the confirmation of the escalation of prices in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, which led to a large mobilization a few days ago in the Catalan capital, there are other realities, in which The exorbitant increase in rents also expels residents from their place of residence.
In this scenario, the Pirineu Viu platform, together with other entities in defense of tenants, such as the Llogateres Union, have decided to take to the streets on December 6 in La Seu d’Urgell, coinciding with the beginning of the Purísima Bridge, to denounce the situation. “We say enough is enough,” he proclaims Bernat Lavaquiolone of the spokespersons for the entity. So, remember that Tourism accounts for more than 70% of the activity in this territory and in this context tourist homes represent 74% of the total. “They are apartments that are not inhabited more than 10 days a year on average, while in the Pyrenees it is impossible to find a house to rent.”
Lavaquiol refers to the Andorran workers who are forced to go live in La Seu d’Urgell, which implies transferring the problem to the capital of Alt Urgell, further straining the real estate market there. “We are experiencing a displacement of the inhabitants of the Pyrenees to other areas, in an episode of rural and green gentrification, which is demonstrated by the flight of the residents of the Cerdanya region towards that of Berguedà”.
The Pirineu Viu spokesperson suggests that one of the derivatives of the ski slope business is real estate speculation. “All the slopes, except Baqueira Beret and Masella, are public, so Profitability is obtained from complementary services such as tourism, hospitality or housing“. To confront this spiral, Lavaquiol points out the need to diversify its economic activities, eliminate or reduce licenses for tourist apartments and control rental prices.
Tourist monoculture
After the historic mobilization to request a reduction in rents held in Barcelona, now the entities of the Pyrenees call for the mobilization called by 40 Pyrenean groups under the motto ‘For a Living Pyrenees: decent housing’. Núria Ferrando, another of the spokespersons for Pirineu Viu, denounces that “in the Pyrenees there is one tourist bed for every inhabitant” and also considers “unacceptable that 60% of the housing is second homes”.
Ferrando explains that the situation in the Catalan Pyrenees and Andorra “is at its limit” and that call for mass mobilization “to lower the price of rents and be able to continue living in our towns.”
For its part, Enric Aragonesspokesperson for the Llogateres Union, affirms that the problem of “the exorbitant increase in housing prices not only affects large cities, but is also experienced fully in the rural world” and that is why It is necessary that “people from all over the country overflow the demonstration on December 6 in La Seu d’Urgell.”
For its part, Eva Vilasecafrom the Assemblea Catalana per la Transició Ecosocial, describes the tourist monoculture, which represents 70% of the economy of the Pyrenees, as a “obsolete” model that “endangers the future of the territory and the planet”. Vilaseca adds that this model “degrades the territory, consumes essential resources such as water and “It is incompatible with the current climate reality.”.
Population increase
The regions of the Pyrenees are those that Percentage-wise, they register the highest numbers of second homes in Catalonia: 64% on average, according to data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat). Municipalities of Cerdanya, such as Alp or Fontanals, exceed the 80% of second residence homes due to their proximity to ski resorts from La Molina and Masella.
On the other hand, another worrying fact is the limited supply of public housing. Thus, in Cerdanya, The housing stock in this area is only 86 properties, a figure that is equivalent to 1.33% of the total.
In this context, the Generalitat decided last summer to include towns such as Vielha, Bellver de Cerdanya, El Pont de Suert and Bagà in the list of municipalities with stressed rentso that they were added to the areas with a price cap.
The increase in apartment values occurs within the framework of a growing population trend. In Cerdanya, since 2000, the number of registered people has increased by 41%. The region has gone from 14,000 to almost 20,000 inhabitants. In the capital, Puigcerdà, the population has risen since the 6,900 two decades ago to 9,700 today40% more.
The demographic reality and the residential market contrast with employment. Companies in the ski resort sector and winter sports tourism have problems meeting the demand for professionals, not because of the lack of workers, but because their difficulties in finding housing at a reasonable price. Given the situation, some of them are forced to live in motorhomes or vans, which shows the precariousness of their living conditions.
In the long term, beyond the demands of social entities and neighborhood platforms in the Pyrenees to regulate rental prices, long-range policies that allow guarantee the habitability conditions of homes and prevent the collapse of buildings on rustic land throughout the Pyrenees. It would be another formula to increase supply.
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