You're using an outdated browser. Please upgrade to a modern browser for the best experience.
Submitted Successfully!
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic. For video creation, please contact our Academic Video Service.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1 David Hernández Falagán -- 625 2025-08-13 10:26:14 |
2 formatted Perry Fu Meta information modification 625 2025-08-13 10:58:43 |

Video Upload Options

We provide professional Academic Video Service to translate complex research into visually appealing presentations. Would you like to try it?
No, upload directly Yes

Confirm

Are you sure to Delete?
Yes No
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Hernández Falagán, D.; Guàrdia, M.; Oyón, J.L.; Rosselló, M. Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/58751 (accessed on 05 December 2025).
Hernández Falagán D, Guàrdia M, Oyón JL, Rosselló M. Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/58751. Accessed December 05, 2025.
Hernández Falagán, David, Manel Guàrdia, José Luis Oyón, Maribel Rosselló. "Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/58751 (accessed December 05, 2025).
Hernández Falagán, D., Guàrdia, M., Oyón, J.L., & Rosselló, M. (2025, August 13). Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/58751
Hernández Falagán, David, et al. "Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona." Encyclopedia. Web. 13 August, 2025.
Peer Reviewed
Homeownership and Working-Class Suburbs in Barcelona
This is a peer-reviewed entry published in Encyclopedia Journal, full entry can be found at 10.3390/encyclopedia5030113

In comparative analyses, specific features of the Spanish welfare and housing systems have often been emphasized. The case of Barcelona illustrates the extent to which these features are the result of a long-standing historical trajectory and the decisive impact of the challenges and policy responses adopted during Franco’s lengthy, dark, and gloomy regime. This period marked a significant shift, not only due to the persistent shortage of social rental housing, but also because of the early consolidation of a homeownership culture and its dominance in working-class suburban areas—a legacy that is completely different from that of the welfare states of Western Europe. Through a review of the literature and the analysis of primary sources, ongoing research on Barcelona seeks to clarify the factors and processes that led to this transformation, as well as its evolution during the democratic period, within an international context of economic liberalization and the dismantling of the welfare state.

homeownership working-class suburbs Barcelona Francoism
Since the crisis of the 1970s, there has been growing convergence in European housing policies. Especially since Margaret Thatcher’s Housing Act in 1980, neoliberal postulates have increasingly emphasized homeownership and reduced public investment in social rented housing [1][2][3][4][5]. Today, the most prominent expression of the spread of these policies is the high percentage of homeownership in the countries of the former Soviet orbit (Figure 1).
Encyclopedia 05 00113 g001
Figure 1. Percentage of homeownership in different European countries, 2024. Adapted from Ref. [6].
Despite this growing convergence, it should be stressed that decisive structural divergences remain between the countries of Western Europe. The attempt to categorize these differences through housing regimes aims to provide a baseline for comparative studies and highlights the path-dependencies of each case. The decisions made in the years immediately following the Second World War, in particular, have led to significant divergences [7][8][9]. The housing shortage that ensued in the aftermath of the war, precipitated by the devastation wrought, gave rise to a substantial need for reconstruction. However, this need was addressed in divergent ways by different countries. While Western Europe adopted measures characteristic of social-democratic welfare states (an emphasis on public housing in the United Kingdom, a robust rental market in West Germany, mass construction in France, universal housing in Sweden, mixed housing solutions in Italy, etc.) [10][11][12], Eastern European countries, satellite states of the Soviet bloc, maintained collectivized housing models under communist regimes [13][14][15]. These models later led to massive privatizations at affordable prices, resulting in extremely high homeownership rates.
In this context, a specific Mediterranean welfare regime has been proposed, and the Spanish case is of interest because of the early policy of homeownership and because of the paradoxical bias it has adopted since the 1960s. From this time, the new working-class peripheries have accumulated the highest percentages of homeownership. Another legacy that has become structural is the persistently low percentage of social rented housing compared to other Western European countries [16].
This article attempts, firstly, to understand the development of this homeownership divergence with other European countries. Secondly, it aims to consider to what extent the triumph of this option for house ownership marked and still marks the subsequent development of not only the housing market, but also the course of history and the political situation in Spain.
Recent analyses agree that this past history is the origin of many contradictions and is still a determining factor in understanding the housing issue in Spain today (exorbitant property prices, a paucity of public housing stock, and a dearth of affordable rental properties, among other factors) [17]. The well-established historical legacy has led to long-standing inertias that are very difficult to change because they were reinforced by the subsequent liberalization process. They condition and limit possible responses to the housing problem, which is an increasingly decisive issue on the current economic and political agenda.

References

  1. Bonomo, B. Politiche Abitative e Proprietà della Casa in Italia nel Secondo Dopoguerra; Sapienza University: Roma, Italy, 2019.
  2. Chambers, M.; Garriga, C.; Schlagenhauf, D.E. The Post-War Boom in Homeownership: An Exercise in Quantitative History. Editor. Express 2011, 62, 1–28.
  3. Collins, W.J.; Margo, R.A. Race and Home Ownership from the End of the Civil War to the Present. Am. Econ. Rev. 2010, 101, 355–359.
  4. Saunders, P. Restoring a Nation of Homeowners. What Went Wrong with Home Ownership in Britain, and How to Start Putting it Right; Civitas: Essex, UK, 2016.
  5. Woodin, T.; Crook, D.; Carpentier, V. Chapter heading Community and Mutual Ownership. A Historical Review; Joseph Rowntree Foundation: York, UK, 2010.
  6. Eurostat. Distribution of Population by Tenure Status, Type of Household and Income Group. Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ILC_LVHO02__custom_5518940/default/map?lang=en (accessed on 20 June 2025).
  7. Esping-Andersen, G. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism; Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, USA, 1990.
  8. Ferrera, M. The Southern Model of Welfare in Social Europe. J. Eur. Soc. Policy 1996, 6, 17–37.
  9. Hoekstra, J.; Vakili, Z. High house prices and high vacancy rates: A Mediterranean paradox? In Proceedings of the ENHR 2007 International Conference “Sustainable Urban Areas”, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 25–28 June 2007.
  10. Angelini, V.; Laferrère, A.; Weber, G. Home-ownership in Europe: How did it happen? Adv. Life Course Res. 2013, 18, 83–90.
  11. Flora, P. Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II; Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, 1986; Volume 4.
  12. Sørvoll, J.; Nordvik, V. Social citizenship, inequality and homeownership. Postwar perspectives from the north of Europe. Soc. Policy Soc. 2020, 19, 293–306.
  13. Tsenkova, S. Housing change in East and Central Europe: Integration or fragmentation? Routledge: London, UK, 2017.
  14. Marcuse, P. Privatization and its discontents: Property rights in land and housing in the transition in Eastern Europe. In Cities After Socialism: Urban and Regional Change and Conflict in Post-Socialist Societies; John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, USA, 1996; pp. 119–191.
  15. Huber, P.; Montag, J. Homeownership, Political Participation, and Social Capital in Post-Communist Countries and Western Europe. Kyklos 2020, 73, 96–119.
  16. Trilla, C. La Política D’habitatge en Una Perspectiva Comparada; La Caixa: Barcelona, Spain, 2001.
  17. Di Feliciantonio, C.; Aalbers, M.B. The Pre-histories of Neoliberal Housing Policies in Italy and Spain and their Reification in Times of Crisis. Hous. Policy Debate 2017, 28, 135–151.
More
© Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Upload a video for this entry
Information
Subjects: Urban Studies
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register : David Hernández Falagán , Manel Guàrdia , José Luis Oyón , Maribel Rosselló
View Times: 354
Book: Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Online Date: 13 Aug 2025
Table of Contents
    1000/1000
    Hot Most Recent
    Notice
    You are not a member of the advisory board for this topic. If you want to update advisory board member profile, please contact office@encyclopedia.pub.
    OK
    Confirm
    Only members of the Encyclopedia advisory board for this topic are allowed to note entries. Would you like to become an advisory board member of the Encyclopedia?
    Yes
    No
    Academic Video Service
    Feedback