The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, has baptized 2026 as the “year of municipal housing”. While housing is breaking record prices and the increase of the square meter is even more expensive than 20% in some neighborhoods of the capital, the Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS Madrid) announces that it will begin work on 2,500 new affordable rental housing units distributed in 22 developments and six districts of the capital. This represents the biggest simultaneous boost to public housing in decades, although it is still insufficient to control the escalation of prices.
The new developments will be distributed in Barajas, Carabanchel, Fuencarral-El Pardo, Moncloa-Aravaca, Vicálvaro and Villa de Vallecas, reinforcing both new developments in the southeast and consolidated neighborhoods in the north and west. Of the 2,500 housing units planned, 1,600 are part of the first phase of the Suma Vivienda Plan and will be built mainly in the areas of Los Ahijones and Los Berrocales, in Vicálvaro, through public-private partnership formulas.
At the same time, more than 760 industrialized public housing units will be promoted: 170 in the districts of Barajas, Moncloa-Aravaca and Villa de Vallecas, and some 600 within the Suma Plan itself in Vicálvaro. The objective is to bring affordable housing to well-connected areas, close to new transport infrastructure and facilities, to avoid “ghettos” and to favor a balanced mix of uses and socioeconomic profiles.
More affordable rental housing in Madrid
The announcement was made to coincide with the mayor’s inauguration of the Iberia Loreto 1 development in Barajas, the first public housing building in Madrid built in wood with prefabricated 3D modules. This pilot project, with 52 homes (four adapted for people with reduced mobility) and an investment of 14.6 million euros, was completed in just 17 months, which for the City Council shows that industrialized construction can shorten deadlines and reduce costs.
On this basis, EMVS Madrid will extend industrialized systems to a good part of the new developments, especially the 760 public housing units that will be built using this model. The City Council stresses that this bet allows reducing construction waste, improving thermal and acoustic insulation and offering more efficient and comfortable housing, aligned with European standards of ecological transition.
Since 2019, the EMVS housing stock has grown by about 3,600 units, almost 60%, to almost 10,000 affordable rental housing units in the city. However, these data of which the consistory boasts have been insufficient to control rental prices in the capital, which only in the last year increased by 9.7% according to data from Idealista.