A study proposes specific legal measures in the urban planning domain to promote housing cooperatives in Catalonia

Dinamo Foundation has commissioned the Barcelona Chair of Housing Studies (CBEH) to produce a legal analysis on urban planning and housing to explore how to facilitate the deployment of housing cooperatives in Catalonia that operate under the cesión de uso (right-of-use) model.

The report begins by recognizing affordable housing as a model of public interest and presents 10 concrete proposals:

• 4 measures requiring no legal changes, such as increasing investment in housing policies to 0.6% of GDP (the European average), prioritizing support for cooperatives, establishing specific urban planning classifications for cooperative housing, and limiting the horizontal division of residential buildings in certain cases.
• 6 proposals involving regulatory changes, such as consolidating and clarifying Catalonia’s housing legislation into a single text, formally including the cooperative model within official housing typologies, and reducing the price payable for the exercise of pre-emption and repurchase rights (tanteo y retracto), as well as in certain cases of land expropriation, by developing existing legal possibilities.

This work arrives in a context defined by a severe housing access crisis and coincides with the UN’s declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives.

In Catalonia, the cesión de uso housing cooperative model has gained momentum in recent years, with projects that combine affordable access to housing with the creation of stable, rooted communities. The latest report on the impact of cooperative housing shows that people living in housing cooperatives report a higher quality of life and greater emotional well-being compared to those living in the private rental sector. However, the cooperative housing model still faces legal and economic obstacles that limit its development.

The CBEH’s proposals address the need to place cooperatives on a level playing field with other actors in the housing market, recognizing their social value and capacity to innovate in forms of access and management. These measures could position cooperatives as a key component of long-term public housing policies.

For more information, you can consult the summary of the 10 measures here and the full report here.