Andorra Councillor: Public Housing Alone Can't Fix Residential Crisis

Marc Torrent, Andorra la Vella councillor for Digital Transformation and Sustainability, as well as Housing, has warned that expanding the public housing stock remains essential but insufficient to resolve the country's residential crisis.

In an interview with the Andorran News Agency, Torrent emphasised the need to combine new public flats with structural reforms targeting the property market, foreign investment and surging rental prices. He noted that Andorra la Vella has 10,000 to 12,000 homes, rendering even 600 public units a minor share of the total. "Building 500 public flats won't solve the housing crisis," he said, adding that the debate cannot centre solely on construction when the government holds other immediate options.

Torrent highlighted incentives fuelling price pressures, questioning why foreign investors can still buy two properties when most acquire one. He criticised the recent rise in the minimum property investment threshold from €600,000 to €800,000, arguing it has merely inflated purchase costs without swift relief. New developments take years, as seen with the Borda Nova project, launched some time ago but still unoccupied. Projects of just 50 homes, he said, fail to address a crisis impacting broad swathes of society.

With nearly 80% of rental contracts still frozen, the councillor flagged growing risks from the planned gradual thaw ahead. "We know conditions won't improve this year or next, leaving many families under even greater pressure as leases expire," he cautioned.

Torrent praised his parish's strategy of diversifying initiatives and leveraging private capital for affordable supply. Examples include public-private partnerships at Terra Vella, communal stakes in Cedre flats and the planned Jaume I refurbishment for 18 senior units. "Without mobilising private funds, the crisis cannot be fixed," he argued, noting Andorra's decades-long lag behind European peers like Vienna, which has built affordable housing for a century. Long-term planning, he said, must secure tools and assets for future shortages in 40 to 50 years.

In related discussion, property law professor Sergio Nasarre told over 50 professionals at an event hosted by the Property Owners and Real Estate Association that highly interventionist policies often fail, while market-oriented approaches yield better long-term results. He praised Andorra's social housing growth to around 500 units in three or four years as a key success for those excluded from the market, endorsed the gradual rental liberalisation to avoid rebounds, and urged reliable data on stock, vacancies and buyer profiles to inform policy. Nasarre attributed housing strains to Andorra's economic appeal and warned against Spain's post-2007 missteps, such as sidelining private ownership without alternatives or creating legal uncertainty through excessive rules.