The struggle has had its reward:Casa Orsola, the symbol against real estate speculation in Barcelona, will finally be for its neighbors. In an unexpected twist of the script that promised an eviction for its tenants, the City Council has announced this morning that it will buy the emblematic building in the Eixample.
Thus, the building, owned by the investment fund Lioness Inversiones, will pass into the hands of the Consistory and the social entity Habitat 3, through a “collaborative social formula”, as reported by the consistory in a statement.
The announcement has come after several days in which the neighborhood pressure has managed to attract the attention of all and mobilize protesters who have managed to stop twice the attempted eviction of Josep Torrent, a 49-year-old teacher and resident in the block for 24 years. His eviction, initially scheduled for last week, had been postponed until February 18, and has now been suspended.
The agreement will be presented in more detail this Friday at 11 am at a press conference with the participation of the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, the president of Habitat 3, Carme Trilla, and the Barcelona Ombudsman, David Bondia. One hour later, the Sindicat de Llogateres will assess the situation in front of Casa Orsola.
Casa Orsola, the symbol of the housing crisis in Barcelona
The case has become a symbol of the fight against real estate speculation in Barcelona. Since 2001, when the investment fund acquired the building, it has implemented several strategies to not renew the tenants’ contracts, seeking to refurbish the apartments and triple the rents. Currently, the neighbors pay between 700 and 900 euros, but the plan of the property was to raise the rents to 2,100 or 2,800 euros per month.
The City Council had already had the option to buy the building in 2022, but Ada Colau’s government prioritized other acquisitions. Now, after the mobilizations of recent weeks, the purchase has materialized. And although it is celebrated as a victory, the movements in defense of housing remind that the problem goes beyond Casa Orsola, it affects numerous neighborhoods of Barcelona and that thousands of homes in Barcelona are at risk of becoming a new “Casa Orsola”.