The Executive Council of the Government this Tuesday has approved the Agency of Housing of Catalonia (AHC) to launch a housing fund in rural municipalities, and grants for the rehabilitation of facilities and unused houses to recover about 100 each year until 2029.
The spokesperson of the Government and Minister of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, explained this after it was announced by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, during his speech at the I Meeting of Rural Municipalities in Sant Fruitós de Bages (Barcelona) this Saturday, where the deployment of the Rural Municipalities Statute, approved at the end of July, was discussed.
The Statute includes support measures for 608 of the 947 Catalan municipalities (64%), which are those with less than 2,000 inhabitants in rural areas, and those with less than 2,000 inhabitants in neighboring regions with a low population density or negative growth. There is also a category – rural municipalities of special protection – for those with fewer than 500 inhabitants.
Paneque stated that this policy «understands the rural environment as a determining factor» in which, she assured, the right to housing must be guaranteed.
HOUSING IN THE RURAL WORLD
With the aim of repopulating rural municipalities and promoting roots, various measures in the housing sector will be promoted.
Through the AHC, a rural housing fund will be created to mobilize empty houses, in collaboration with regional councils, and grants for rehabilitation will be considered.
Specifically, €20 million will be deployed until 2029 in the form of grants for municipal facilities (old schools, for example) or private houses that are not in good condition to be rehabilitated, to be used as primary residences or to be rented at an «affordable and protected» price for at least 10 years.
It is intended to rehabilitate up to 100 facilities or houses each year in these municipalities, in a co-financed grant format.
The success of these measures will depend in part on the approval of new budgets, which have not yet been negotiated with ERC and Comuns, who demand compliance with funding and housing.
INCASÒL
Another issue that the Government has identified for the promotion of housing in rural areas is the difficulties in processing and managing related matters by municipalities, due to the lack of resources and officials.
Therefore, through Incasòl, an initial team of six professionals (architects, engineers, and jurists) will be set up to exclusively assist the councils of these rural municipalities and regional councils.
They will collaborate in the processing and management of urban planning, in recovering abandoned or depopulated old nuclei, and in rehabilitating spaces and houses.
TERRITORY LAW
The Government plans to approve a new Territory Law in the first quarter of 2026 for subsequent processing in Parliament, which will propose distinctions in urban and territorial planning to streamline management and processing in these municipalities.
The intention is to adapt the legal framework of this law to the current reality – drafting began in 2014 and has not been approved – to incorporate the «view of rural municipalities».
In addition, the Government, as announced by Illa, is studying the possibility for municipalities to have access to the public company Infrastructures of the Generalitat (Infrastructures.cat) for the preparation of their tenders and projects.
To do this, the idea is for them to buy shares of the public company, at a symbolic price, and by becoming partners, they can commission them.
OTHER MEASURES
Beyond this, the President also shared on Saturday some of the measures included in the statute and already being implemented, related to taxation and financing of these municipalities.
Reductions in Property Transfer Tax (ITP) and bonuses to facilitate the regularization of rural properties have been implemented, and from 2026, deductions will be applied to the Personal Income Tax for those who move their residence to a rural municipality or for the acquisition of a primary residence, which will have an impact on the Generalitat’s income of €14 million, according to the Government’s calculations.
In parallel, the allocation of the Local Cooperation Fund received by municipalities will be increased, through a specific fund reserved for rural areas, which by 2026 will mean an increase of between 10% and 25% depending on the level of protection, with a total increase of €9 million.
Finally, the Government places the deployment of the fiber optic network in all municipalities of Catalonia at the end of this term (currently reaching 684 municipalities) as a key element of its strategy for the rural world.
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