About 15 housing cooperatives in Catalonia have joined forces to buy homes from investment funds and large property owners, according to reporting by El Periódico published on Monday 7 July. The aim is to take homes out of the speculative market at a time when high rents, high sale prices and limited supply are shutting out not only vulnerable households but also many middle-income residents.

For tenants in Barcelona and elsewhere in Catalonia, the immediate consequence is practical: the organisations want to create a larger route for homes to move into stable, affordable use rather than back onto the open market. The initiative builds on recent purchases already completed by cooperatives and tenant groups, including cases in Ciutat Meridiana in Barcelona and Manresa.

Recent cases show how the model is being used

One of the clearest examples is in Ciutat Meridiana, a neighbourhood in the Nou Barris district of Barcelona. According to the Sindicat de Llogateres, the tenants' union, and housing cooperative Sostre Cívic, they completed their first joint purchase under a 2023 collaboration agreement so that Juanjo, a local resident and union member, could remain in his home permanently.

"This purchase is not intended to be an isolated case, but a replicable strategy: cooperatives and unions working together with public instruments," the Sindicat de Llogateres said in its statement.

According to reporting by ARA, the flat in the Font Magués industrial estate area of Ciutat Meridiana was bought from Divarian, linked to the Cerberus fund, for €54,000. ARA reported that Juanjo had spent five years facing the threat of eviction and that the purchase was the first time the cooperative had acquired a home with a tenant already living in it.

The Sindicat de Llogateres and Sostre Cívic said the operation means the home will now be used on a stable social and affordable basis, with Juanjo becoming a member of the cooperative and holding a permanent right of use through an affordable monthly fee. They also said the purchase was made possible by a loan from the Institut Català de Finances, Catalonia's public financial institute, subsidised by the Agència Catalana de l'Habitatge under its programme for the acquisition and refurbishment of homes for social use.

Manresa project removed a seven-flat block from the market

Another case cited in the same debate is Cal Bloke in Manresa. According to La Dinamo Fundació, the project turned a block of seven homes in the Vic-Remei neighbourhood into a cooperative housing scheme based on right of use after years of conflict with previous owners, first Solvia and later the vulture fund Promontoria Coliseum.

La Dinamo said all flats in the building had open eviction proceedings before the purchase was completed in December 2025. It said the acquisition was financed by the Institut Català de Finances and that the homes were classified as protected housing.

Under that arrangement, La Dinamo said, the cooperative will hold the property for the first 75 years before it reverts to the Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya. The foundation described the case as possibly the first recent example in Catalonia of a block in housing struggle being converted into a cooperative.

What is known about the new alliance

El Periódico reported that the new alliance brings together roughly 15 Catalan cooperatives to gain scale when negotiating purchases from funds and large owners. The reporting frames the move as a response to a worsening housing access crisis affecting Barcelona and much of Catalonia.

The source material provided does not set out a full list of all cooperatives involved, a target number of homes to be bought, or a timetable for the joint purchases. It does, however, link the alliance to a strategy already tested in specific buildings and flats where cooperatives, tenant organisations and public finance have been used to stop evictions and keep homes in non-speculative use.

  • The alliance involves around 15 Catalan housing cooperatives, according to El Periódico.
  • In Ciutat Meridiana, ARA reported a cooperative purchase price of €54,000 for Juanjo's flat.
  • In Manresa, La Dinamo said Cal Bloke covers seven homes in the Vic-Remei neighbourhood.
  • The Manresa scheme provides for the property to revert to the Catalan housing agency after 75 years.

For residents trying to follow these schemes, the most concrete official channels named in the source material are the Sindicat de Llogateres and Sostre Cívic announcement on the Ciutat Meridiana purchase and the La Dinamo Fundació project page on Cal Bloke, which explain how those operations were structured.

Primary sources: barcelona.cat. Reported by Source Text Link, Àlex Rebollo, Abril Lozano, sindicatdellogateres.org, ladinamofundacio.org, Sindicat de Llogateres, Martina Alcobendas, Anna Serrano, tercerainformacion.es, economiasolidaria.org, Marta Rodríguez Carrera, barna.news, catalannews.com, Natàlia Vila, euronews.com, El Periódico Barcelona.