Overview
- Barcelona, which announced the deal Friday in a municipal plenary, used its preemptive purchase power known as tanteo y retracto to acquire 161 Diputació in the Eixample.
- The city will spend 6.1 million euros in total for the 14-flat property, including 4.6 million to buy it and 1.5 million to refurbish it, and will assign the 13 vacant units to people on the protected-housing registry.
- Tanteo y retracto lets the city step in to match a sale and take ownership to block speculative flips, and a December ordinance guiding its use has, according to officials, enabled roughly 315 building acquisitions so far.
- In the same session, the council rejected a Barcelona en Comú plan to give priority to cooperatives and non-profits after ERC abstained and other groups voted no, as the PSC government argued for bringing in public bodies and private developers.
- The plenary also backed seeking state funds to finance more preemptive purchases, passing the motion with the mayor’s casting vote.