Empty Housing in Demographically Vulnerable Rural Municipalities. A Comparative Study of Two Andalusian Cases

Abstract

In municipalities with a declining population, there is a high percentage of vacant housing that paradoxically coexists with an insufficient offer of affordable and adequate homes for certain residents who either want to remain in town or settle there for work reasons. To put these vacant homes on the market at an affordable price and in adequate living conditions, a first step would be to identify and characterize them. In the research project Demographic Challenge and Housing (REVIVE), a mixed methodology has been applied to identify and characterize vacant housing in the two municipalities chosen as case studies, Montefrío and Arroyomolinos de León (Andalusia, Spain). In turn, the unsatisfied demand for housing, detected and potential, has been analyzed, qualifying it according to parameters such as the access or tenure regime. In this way, the aim is to determine whether the available stock can serve as a potential resource to facilitate the fixation of population in these municipalities. As a result, maps of vacant housing have been created in which the situations detected are characterized and the foundations are set for further fieldwork, aimed at reactivating vacant housing. The conclusions of the study indicate that the demand for housing of the native population and of workers and entrepreneurs can be satisfactorily solved through good management of the vacant housing stock detected, combining rehabilitation and mediation actions in the rental of these homes. At the same time, it points at the importance of carrying out diagnoses to support the development of effective strategies, which, in the case of municipalities of smaller size and population is not easy to do due to the lack of consistent information to carry out this kind of studies.