
The failed attempt of eviction of the Casa Orsola has definitely put housing problems on the front pages and, more importantly, on everyone’s lips. Where before evictions were processes that took place behind everyone’s back, now there has been an eviction that everyone in Barcelona is aware of and that has brought together all kinds of sectors in the protest against real estate speculation.
This has led to more intense research on the subject, and hence the article by Jaime Palomera, anthropologist and researcher at the Institut de Recerca Urbana (IDRA) in elcritic.cat, where he points out a worrying future perspective: the approval of a law that the PSC seeks to promote could lead to the appearance of some 3,000 new houses in Barcelona that are candidates for eviction .
The rule that would put 157,000 people at risk of eviction
As Jaime Palomera explains in his article, what is happening in Casa Orsola could multiply by 3,909 if the Barcelona City Council eliminates, as the PSC plans to do, the rule that requires 30% of rehabilitated properties to be used for subsidized housing.
If this change is applied , it would affect 3,909 buildings (some 62,756 homes) that currently have 30% of their stock earmarked for subsidized housing. The fall of the rule would give a free hand to speculate with the building, putting 157,000 people at risk of eviction.
This rule does not apply for free. Its approval would mean that the potential profit from these purchase and sale operations would increase by 2,283.5 million euros, a profit destined for housing speculators.
In other words: if the measure falls, Barcelona could become a paradise for investment funds that apply strategies like that of Casa Orsola. That is, buying entire buildings, evicting the neighbors, renovating and reselling at prices that are unaffordable for the local population.
Why does the 30% rule curb real estate speculation?

The 30% rule was pushed by social movements in 2018 and passed during Ada Colau’s term in office with the support of all parties except PP (who voted against) and Cs (who abstained). In short, it obliges real estate developers to allocate 30% of the housing units to affordable rent when constructing or rehabilitating an entire building.
The real estate sector claims that the measure slows down the construction or renovation of new housing, but data show that in cities such as Paris, where the rule has been approved since 2006, the stock of subsidized housing has doubled (in fact, in 2023 the rule was extended to 50% subsidized housing in areas with high demand). In Barcelona, 1,966 new homes were built in 2024 alone, 600 more than the previous year thanks to this norm.
According to data provided by IDRA, the fall of the rule implies, using the example of Casa Orsola, that an investment fund can buy a property for 4.9 million euros, evict the tenants, renovate and sell for 5.7 million in one year, obtaining a profit of 16.4% in just one year.
Therefore, the 30% rule is, according to Palomera, a dike of containment against real estate speculation in a Barcelona that suffers seriously from the pressure of a runaway housing market, and that is why it is necessary to protect this rule in order to continue growing the stock of protected housing.