The total budget for the promotion is almost 13,5 million euros and nearly 2,5 million will come from the Next Generation funds.

This April, the City Council will transfer the land to the cooperative and the works are scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2024.

Sostre Cívic, the main rental housing cooperative in Catalonia, will build a development of a minimum of 60 officially protected homes at Carretera del Pont de Vilomara number 121 in Manresa (Bages) on land owned by the municipality. The aim of the project is to generate new sheltered housing at prices lower than those on the free rental market and to promote a stable and affordable housing supply. This is what the mayor of Manresa explained this morning, during a visit to the site where the development will be built. Marc Aloy Guard i Yabel Pérez Moreno, project promotion technician and member of the Governing Council of Sostre Cívic. 

With 60 homes, it will be the second largest cooperative housing development in Catalonia, after the inclusive Sant Andreu project in Barcelona with 80 homes.

The new building will have one built surface of 7.818,9 square meters, with four collective spaces and two commercial premises, in addition to parking spaces. The construction will follow criteria of energy sustainability, of almost zero consumption (nZEB), with energy production from renewable sources, construction with low-impact materials and construction systems, in addition to a minimum generation of waste and reuse of materials. The design of the building, carried out in the previous studies by theBTA architects studio, contemplates large community areas designed for shared life between all the neighbors, the uses of which will be decided by the future partners. It will be the second largest housing in Catalonia and the State in a cooperative model in right of use, after a promotion that is also working Sostre Cívic in the Sant Andreu neighborhood of Barcelona with 80 homes.

All homes, which will be managed by Sostre Cívic, will follow the model of cooperative housing in right of use. It is a non-speculative alternative with collective and democratic management, a model straddling ownership and renting, in which the ownership of the property belongs to the cooperative and the neighbors who are partners participate and enjoy an indefinite right of use, transferable and at a stable price. People who want to live there they must be members of the cooperative and make an initial capital contribution (which in the case of the Manresa project will be between 10 and 15 thousand euros) which will be refundable if they ever leave the property. The monthly fees are still to be defined, but they are subject to the limits of official protection housing and will be stable (they can never increase) and below market prices.

Next Generation fund

As detailed by Mayor Aloy, the Manres project has been one of those selected in the call for grants from the 'Program of aid to the construction of social leased housing in energy efficient buildings' of the 'Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan' (PRTR)', financed with the Next Generation funds of the European Union.

The total budget for the action is estimated at 13.479.575,11 euros and the contribution of the Next Generation funds at a maximum of 2.494.867,50 euros. The rest of the financing will be completed with the contribution of the user partners of Sostre Cívic and with external bank financing. Manresa City Council is processing the surface right in favor of the cooperative, which is expected to be approved this April. The council will receive one of the two premises planned in the building, of 500 square meters, for future municipal equipment. 

The registration campaign will open at the end of 2023 and it will be necessary to be registered in Manresa and registered in the HPO register, in addition to being a member of Sostre Cívic. Moving in is planned for 2026.

In terms of the calendar, it is planned that the drafting of the project will take place throughout 2023. Once completed, the registration campaign for interested people in the municipality will begin, between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Everyone who wants to promote the project and live there must be registered in Manresa, be registered in the register of applicants for officially protected housing and become a partner of Sostre Cívic. The demands will be ordered objectively according to the seniority of the member, as marked by the statutes of the cooperative. The works can start in mid-2024, with the expectation of being able to inaugurate the new building in 2026.

Two cooperative housing projects in Manresa

This will not be the only project that Sostre Cívic is promoting Manresa. He is also working on the rehabilitation of a building of 13 homes near the center of the municipality, acquired via the use of the right of trial and retraction. The cooperative has rescued an old property from the private market to transform it into a sustainable and affordable building. The information and registration campaign for the project is expected to take place, together with the promotion campaign with the City Council, at the end of 2023.