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Spain Housing
Housing was another area in which Spaniards had to
respond to
the challenges of dramatic change. During the late 1950s
and the
1960s, about 14 percent of the total population changed
residence
permanently from one part of the country to another, and
most of
these people lacked suitable housing. One of the most
pressing
challenges of the government and of the private sector was
to
find or to build housing for these millions of uprooted
people.
The government became involved in housing policy
relatively late
and then only as a source of subsidy for the private
sector. The
government's 1961 National Housing Plan called for the
construction of 4 million new dwellings by 1976. In the
hope that
home ownership would help dilute the working class
radicalism
that had fueled the economic crises of the 1930s, most of
these
dwellings were to be for sale, not for rent. About half of
these
residences were built and were financed through the
unsubsidized
private sector; for most of the remainder, the government
subsidized only the lending institution. Thus,
government-owned
housing accounted for only a very small percentage of the
total
number of dwellings.
The private construction sector surpassed the target of
4
million new dwellings. In every major city of Spain, slums
were
replaced by high-rise apartment buildings that ringed the
older
town centers. Despite this building boom, however, by the
time
the wave of urban migration had subsided in the 1970s,
there were
still about 1.5 million people without homes, and the
figure was
about 230,000 as of the 1981 census. The government's
housing
policy had produced millions of new homes, but, by relying
entirely on the private sector to produce them, the
government
ensured that new construction would be directed
principally
toward the growing middle class because there were greater
profits to be made on large, expensive dwellings than
there were
on small, modest ones. The government attempted to offset
these
market forces by placing ceilings on sale prices and on
the size
of units to be subsidized, but the limits they imposed
were so
high that they did little to enlarge the market for cheap
working-class housing. Not only was housing scarce, but
much of
it was in poor condition. According to the 1980 housing
census,
of the 6.5 million buildings tallied, one-fifth (1.3
million) had
been built before 1900 and another one-fifth, between 1900
and
1940. Only 37 percent could be considered to be relatively
modern, having been constructed since 1961. About 70
percent of
the available buildings were classified as being in good
condition, but nearly 10 percent were categorized as being
seriously run down and in need of repair. Some 90 percent
of the
buildings had running water and indoor toilets, and 94
percent
had electricity; but only 20 percent had central hot water
service and only 4 percent had central heating.
The Socialist government elected in 1982 estimated that
the
country's housing stock must be increased by between
250,000 and
310,000 units each year, if all citizens were to have
their own
homes by the early 1990s. Still, only about 10 percent of
the new
dwellings were to be government-built; 200,000 units would
continue to be built, financed, and sold, annually,
through the
private sector. Nevertheless, by the late 1980s many
believed
that the housing crisis was substantially over, and that
Spaniards were within a decade of achieving their goal of
minimally acceptable dwellings for all. In terms of
quality,
however, the people had to continue to live with the
legacy of
the 1960's construction boom--huge, impersonal apartment
complexes; shoddy construction and high maintenance costs;
and
high purchase costs--for the foreseeable future.
Data as of December 1988
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