City mayor addresses housing crisis: 'Malaga has to grow in the direction of Guadalhorce valley'

The housing problem in Malaga is so far-reaching that mayor Francisco de la Torre dedicated a large part of his speech at the forum organised by SUR on 15 September to discussing it. The event was held at the Málaga Palacio hotel with the sponsorship of the Cajasol foundation.

"The general problem when people want to live in Malaga is that there is more demand for housing than there is supply - studies by the Bank of Spain put the (national) demand at 600,000 homes a year, while only 90,000 are built. The gap is huge," the mayor said.

"In Malaga, we try to quickly add land and build housing, in line with the provisions of the regional government." As upcoming milestones, De la Torre highlighted the acquisition of Soliva Oeste, with capacity for 1,000 homes. The mayor's intention is to repeat the model of the university area, where the city council is currently building 476 homes with a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), while Lagoon Living is creating another 530 units with moderate rents. On Sunday, 14 September, Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez visited the construction site.

The mayor also addressed the plan to build 5,000 homes in the Lagar de Oliveros area and make more than half of them subsidised and affordable for families of lower income. The aim is to already start building in 2027.

Most of the planned developments are taking place around the Guadalhorce Valley, where the Distrito Zeta, Cortijo Merino and Buenavista are currently taking shape, with more than 6000 units planned and under construction.

Meanwhile, more than 7,000 are planned in Campanillas, half of them protected. However, in order to ensure safety in the area, the river must be prepared so that future flooding can be controlled. In this district, there is land for 14,000 flats, while the total capacity (adding other smaller plots in Puerto de la Torre and the eastern area) would be around 20,000. This is where the city's growth possibilities will be exhausted, pending the new urban plan.

During his speech, De la Torre also spoke about the El Bulto project, which is currently studying the three proposals and which will also include social housing. At the same time, some 900 units are planned in the area of La Térmica.

The mayor mentioned that the city council is also interested in "high-level housing", built and sponsored by people with economic capacity, such as international business owners who popularise Malaga's potential abroad.

In conclusion, the mayor announced that the public housing stock, which is the third largest in Spain, will reach 7,000 by 2030 (compared to the current 4,000). There could even be 8,000, if the Soliva Oeste development can be built, but this, as the mayor admitted, is a complex task. In any case, Malaga and the rest of Spain have a long way ahead to make things better for their residents.

De la Torre highlighted that what Malaga has does not meet current needs and demands, which implies expansion towards the city's surrounding areas, such as Cártama. However, housing planning goes hand in hand with accessible means of transport: roads, railway and connections.

For this reason, the mayor stated that the city council's first priority is to have suburban trains every 10 minutes, linked to a network of electric bicycles, of which there will be a thousand in the coming months.

In addition, he discussed the need for a direct train between Malaga and Marbella, which could have a potential 40-50 million users a year. The goal is to make the Costa del Sol capital accessible "from any point in the province".