Catalonia considers expropriating empty homes in low demand areas (El Periódico, 21 Nov 2020)
The [Catalan] Government studies enabling expropriations of empty homes in low demand municipalities
Original headline in Spanish: El Govern estudia habilitar expropiaciones de viviendas vacías en los municipios de baja demanda
By EFE News Agency. Published in El Periódico on 21 November 2020
Summary (through Google Translate):
The Catalan government wants to reform the housing law to enable the expropriation of empty homes in all municipalities and not only in those that have a strong accredited demand, as until now (see, on this knowledge base, "Barcelona’s Latest Affordable Housing Tool: Seize Empty Apartments (Bloomberg, 16 July 2020)").
The measure would be part of a programme that seeks to make it easier for people to settle in rural areas and fight against their depopulation through the rehabilitation of disused houses.
With this programme, the Catalan government will promote access to rural housing by acting as an intermediary with the owners of empty homes and people interested in living in them to find acceptable tenancy formulas by both parties.
In "very specific cases" in which the owner breaches his duty to maintain the home and does not want to make it available to this programme, it could lead to "expropriation".
Keywords: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, empty homes, rural housing, rural areas, expropriation, regulation, law
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