Los Berrocales, one of the new neighborhoods being built in the southeast of the capital, will also be one of the city’s affordable rental laboratories: this year, construction will begin there on nearly 1,000 public housing units, within an area that will eventually house 22,285 apartments, more than half of which will be subsidized in some way. The new developments are part of the Suma Vivienda Plan, the municipal commitment to combine public land and collaboration with private developers to accelerate the construction of rental housing with limited prices. In practice, this means that tenants will not pay more than 30% of their family income and that, in the lots put out to tender, an extra 5% reduction on the maximum rent has even been included, with 65-year surface rights contracts before the buildings become municipal property.
According to data from EMVS Madrid, in Los Berrocales there are already some 2,070 homes for affordable rent in various stages of tendering and execution, of which 875 are directly promoted by the municipality and some 1,194 are being developed through public-private partnerships.
Public rental housing in Madrid
The first wave of almost 1,000 flats will be completed with another phase that will add around 220 more homes, while in the neighboring Los Ahijones development, around 600 are planned, reinforcing the role of the southeast as a new corridor for subsidized housing in Madrid. The City Council is framing these actions within a broader plan. In 2026, EMVS Madrid plans to begin construction on some 2,500 affordable rental homes in 22 developments spread across six districts, consolidating its position as one of the largest public developers in the country.
In urban terms, the rollout of public housing in Los Berrocales comes at the same time as the first private developments and basic amenities, although this has not prevented prices from skyrocketing in the neighborhood and the rest of the region.