The president of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, accompanied by the mayor of Palma, José Hila, and the councillor for Mobility and Housing, Josep Marí, this week visited the construction site of the 57 public housing development under construction in Palma’s es Molinar neighbourhood.
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The development, which has been under construction since October 2020 and is expected to be finished next May, is the largest of that underway in Palma and is the first intergenerational development to be built in the Balearic Islands. This means that the homes will be rented to strategic groups that will share common areas with the aim of generating a dialogue between generations and creating community.
“With COVID we have learned that the society we have to build is one where we are capable of looking after each other, where a citizen is capable of looking after his or her neighbour physically and mentally, where we set up the society of care in the broadest sense”, said Armengol, who defended this project and its importance: “the fact that it has a community and coexistence space is a transcendental question when it comes to seeing how we build a city, a town and a society”.
Thus, the homes in this development, which has a budget of 6.9 million euros, are endowment homes, a special type of housing that is characterised by the shared use of certain areas and which is aimed at specific groups in society. In this case, they will be aimed at people over 65 and people under 35.
It is a model inspired by that of Plaza de América in Alicante, which received the UN award in 2012 for one of the twelve innovative housing solutions worldwide, as it not only meets the demand for housing but also other needs that arise from it.
In this way, each of the families lives together independently but share common areas, such as the day centre, various activity rooms, terraces and patios, with the aim of establishing a small community and creating synergies and sharing experiences.
In order to ensure that these synergies occur, the young people will have to have experience in the social field or a demonstrable interest in this sector and a commitment of a number of hours per week dedicated to the community. The ratio of young people to older people will be as follows: 4 older people to 1 young person.
The president has vindicated the “institutional collaboration that makes housing policies possible” and has highlighted everything “that the Housing Law has allowed us, which was a novelty at a state level and with which we have acquired housing through the right of first refusal, the transfer of use…. All of this has made it possible for us to increase the public housing stock”.
In 2022, the 534 homes currently being built by the IBAVI will be completed. Of these 534 VPOs, 361 are located on the island of Mallorca, 87 on the island of Menorca and 86 on the island of Ibiza. Added to the homes that were completed in 2021, those that will be finished in 2023, and the properties acquired through formulas such as the pre-emptive purchase or the forced transfer of flats from large tenants, the IBAVI will increase the public housing stock of the Balearic Islands by 64%.