75% of new flats built in Madrid and parts of the Mediterranean

Over 900,000 building licences were granted last year, 11.9% more than in 2005, which resulted in the construction of 818,573 flats or houses according to the Spanish Association of Architects.

Out of this total 830,000 flats were destined for private housing (vivienda libre) which roughly translates into a 13% increase on the previous year and just 75,489 were subsidized state housing (vivenda protegida – VPO) which only signifies a 1% increase.

The majority of new flats and houses were built in Madrid or parts of the Mediterranean. In fact, three quarters of the building licenses were destined for these two areas.

VPO construction accounted for just 8.2% of the total of new construction in 2006. In Madrid just 1 in 4 new flats which is approximately 18,730 flats were destined to be VPO last year. Andalucía came next with 11,498 VPO flats and Catalunya with 7,094 VPO flats. In some autonomous communities less VPO flats were built in 2006 than the previous year.

For example in Navarra there was a drop of 31.7%, in Galicia there was a drop of 28.4% and in Castilla y León there was a drop of 24.5% while the most significant advances were made in Cantabria, La Rioja and Baleares in the construction of VPO flats.