Madrid City Council, through the Delegate Housing Department, has decided to make a clear commitment to restoration; to transform and improve the residential fabric of the Spanish capital. In short, to make the city's buildings more energy efficient, more comfortable, more habitable, and healthier for the residents who live in them. In this, there is a lot of work to be done. For this reason, the Delegate Housing Area currently has three offices, three nerve centres with different functions and objectives to channel all the information and all the aid available in the refurbishment of the city.
In the city of Madrid 11% of the buildings were built before 1940 and another 58% were built between 1940 and 1980. This means that some 69% of the buildings in the city are more than 40 years old. Moreover, the buildings that achieve the best energy rating, the letter A, make up less than 0.3% of the total building stock. So there is still a long way to go. In addition, more than 75% of residential buildings are not considered "accessible" (ie. for those with limited mobility) and, of the total number of buildings with four floors or more, around 40% do not have a lift.
The 'Green Office'
The first of the Delegate Housing Area's centres is the new Green Office, which was officially inaugurated on Tuesday 21 December by Álvaro González, a delegate of the Housing Area. Located in Calle Bustamante on the corner of Calle Villa del Prado, it was created as a meeting point and reference point on energy and sustainability for both residents and professionals in the building sector: refurbishment companies, manufacturers, energy service companies, property administrators, professional associations, etc.
Initially set up with four employees, it will be an important showcase for information on all the public aid for refurbishment and regeneration already granted by the Madrid City Council and those that will now be channelled with the arrival of European funds. In short, "the Green Office was created with the aim and the hope that the citizens of Madrid will make a more rational use of the energy they consume in their homes, thus helping to protect the environment and make Madrid a more sustainable city", explains Álvaro González. The Green Office will report to the Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo (EMVS).
The aim of the office is to raise awareness of the benefits of proper energy refurbishment. A refurbished house reduces its tenant's electricity bill by 25-30%. It also pollutes less. By reducing energy consumption for air conditioning, both in summer and winter, it reduces the emission of greenhouse gases (and now we must remember that the housing stock consumes 30% of the total energy consumed in our country). An energetically refurbished house is also more comfortable to live in and increases its value when rented or sold. A study by the Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España (CSCAE) points out that renovating your home represents a 26% increase in its price.
Adapta and Rehabilita Plans
The second office is located in the APOT building, headquarters of the Housing Department (Calle Ribera del Sena 21), where 46 workers are currently in charge of processing the current municipal rehabilitation plans, which in 2022 have a budget of 61 million euros in aid. These are the Rehabilita and Adapta plans.
Rehabilita subsidises four areas of action. The first is aimed at improving the accessibility of buildings in the capital, installing lifts, elevator platforms, or ramps. The second, is to conserve façades, roofs, and structures. The third is to promote energy efficiency, which includes work to insulate façades, replace communal boilers, or install green roofs and electric vehicle charging points. Finally, the plan promotes health, removing asbestos-containing elements, reducing the concentration of radon, and improving indoor air quality.
The Adapta Plan meanwhile is a line of aid for Madrid residents with reduced mobility or sensory and intellectual disabilities who need to carry out work in their homes to improve their quality of life. The objectives of this plan are the elimination of architectural barriers, the improvement of autonomy within the home, greater ease of indoor mobility and an increase in safety in the domestic environment.
The aim is to rehabilitate 20,000 homes this year alone (to which must be added the 39,000 homes already rehabilitated in 2020 and 2021). And that is without taking into account the European funds, which will significantly increase the number of homes to be refurbished. In total, the city council of the capital will have invested 135.5 million in three years in rehabilitation aid.
The Housing Department wants to continue growing, which is why it has recently approved the creation of a new General Sub-Directorate for Strategic Housing Projects to coordinate and manage all the functions carried out by the Department in a more efficient, agile and cross-cutting manner, due to the high volume of aid being processed and those that will be managed in the future. This will mean that the department's staff will increase by a further 20 people to reinforce the new objectives: the creation of a new Housing and Rehabilitation Observatory (to help obtain information to channel new strategies), a new Habitability Ordinance (which is being designed to make Madrid's homes more comfortable, safer and healthier), and the implementation of the Habita Madrid Plan (which monitors energy consumption in homes before and after renovation work).
EMVS reinforcement office
The third office was set up by EMVS last year in Calle Fray Luis de León on the corner of Calle Palos de la Frontera. It employs 12 technicians and its creation was essential to unblock the backlog of unprocessed subsidies left pending by the previous municipal government during the 2015-2019 term of office. The Housing Department found itself with 103 million in unmanaged and unpaid subsidies. In two years both the APOT Office team and this reinforcement office have already processed 90 of those 103 million.
In this reinforcement office, for example, in 2021 alone, subsidies for 6,100 homes from previous plans (Mad-re plan) have been processed to the value of 21.3 million.
This office has also been responsible for processing aid under the State Housing Plan, a plan to rehabilitate certain neighbourhoods selected for their poor state of construction (the ARRUR), which is financed by the State, the Community of Madrid and the City Council of the capital. This year this office has processed 2,772 grants worth 7.5 million euros in these special areas of Madrid.
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