Rebuilding Spain's burned land: a housing Marshall Plan?

Rebuilding Spain's burned land: a housing Marshall Plan?

Does it make sense to build mass housing where the forest burned? After the wildfires that devastated the outskirts of Madrid, an old and controversial idea is resurfacing: using the scorched land to put up tens of thousands of homes. The proposal has the ring of an old plan: something like a 'Marshall Plan' for public housing. But planning reality is stubborn.

The Benidorm mirage

Those who back the idea usually point to Benidorm as an example: 25-storey towers, maximum density. Yet the calculation of homes per square metre is not so favourable. Benidorm's towers come with pools, gardens, parking... In the end, the density per hectare is closer to that of a four-storey city. And the flats are mini-apartments. It is no miracle solution.

Powers and burned land

Another stumbling block is who is in charge. Planning powers rest with Spain's autonomous regions, but the land is decided by the local council. Without municipal will, the plan is dead paper. And as if that were not enough, building on burned terrain involves technical risks: runoff, instability, contamination. None of that is solved in a hurry.

The market is no accident

Some argue that housing unaffordability is the result of deliberate policies, not a shortage of land. As long as the underlying incentives are untouched, not even a Marshall Plan will move the price needle. The opportunity created by the fire collides with reality: housing will not get cheaper no matter how fast you rush.

A final irony: the dictator some long for to bring order to the property market would today have to face the bureaucracy, the Banco de España (Spain's central bank) and the neighbours in the chalet next door. Perhaps that is why no one is brought back from the dead any more.