The housing crisis in Spain has been one of the main topics of public debate for nearly two years. High rental costs are preventing Spaniards from living in the cities where they have spent their entire lives, and in October, mass protests escalated into demands for early parliamentary elections, reportedly scheduled for late November. A symbol of the crisis has become the story of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from Madrid, who was evicted from the apartment where she had lived for about 70 years. According to Euronews, she passed away two weeks after the eviction; the Estonian outlet ERR points out that the forced eviction occurred in September, while her death was in mid-November. Barcelona has become a city at the epicenter of the protests, but also a hub for an alternative housing model promoted by the non-profit cooperative Sostre Cívic.
Right-to-use instead of buying or renting
"Until now, access to housing in Spain has been based on two options: buying or renting. This model is outdated and is exactly what is responsible for the current housing crisis," explained José Téllez, head of communications at Sostre Cívic. The cooperative has pioneered the country’s "right-to-use" (cessió d'ús) model: the real estate is owned by the cooperative, and its members receive a permanent right to live in their apartments without the right to resell them. The organization was founded over 20 years ago, inspired by housing cooperatives in Northern Europe, and today has more than 2,700 members and around 30 projects throughout Catalonia; residents have already moved into half of them—that is over 200 apartments, and in the next three years, the cooperative expects this number to reach 550.
Ca l'Ordit: how cooperative housing is financed
The model is made possible by a combination of public, cooperative, and European financing. An example is the Ca l'Ordit project in northeast Barcelona—one of the largest cooperative housing projects in Spain implemented by Sostre Cívic: 62 apartments across ten floors for approximately 90 low-income residents. The Barcelona municipality provided the land for free under a right-to-use agreement, EU NextGeneration funds cover nearly 3 million euros, and the Council of Europe Development Bank provides concessional financing—all without built-in profit. Thanks to this scheme, future residents of Ca l'Ordit had to contribute between 12,000 and 24,000 euros to secure their housing, which is significantly less than the cost of purchasing real estate. Furthermore, they will pay a monthly fee covering services, maintenance, and taxes, which is estimated to be up to 40% lower than market rent.
Cirerers: life in a collective home
On the northern outskirts of Barcelona, about 50 people have been living in an eight-story building called Cirerers since 2022. "My home is not limited to the 45 square meters of my apartment. It includes several common spaces and a terrace, places where we can live and spend time together," said 59-year-old resident Toni Artal, showing off a terrace with a view of Barcelona. Residents get involved in the process long before construction begins: at monthly meetings and in committees, they jointly decide how to organize common spaces and activities, preparing for collective building management. In Cirerers, there is a "library of things" for exchanging everyday items, a bike workshop, a carpentry workshop, and a shared kitchen where residents cook together and organize sports and cultural events.
The scale of the model and its limitations
Today, an entire generation of Spaniards spends between 50% and 60% of their income on ever-increasing rent, and according to Sostre Cívic, the government response has been mixed. "More and more municipalities are willing to cooperate and develop cooperative housing projects on their territory. But over the last four years, Barcelona has allocated public land for only 100 cooperative homes, compared to more than 1,000 rental homes on public land built in partnership with commercial companies," explains Sostre Cívic spokesperson José Téllez. As noted by the authors of Euronews, the cooperative housing model alone will not solve the housing crisis in Europe, but it shows that a different solution is possible: to become a viable alternative on a larger scale, it needs land, financing, and a political commitment—the recognition of housing as a right.
