The push that protected housing experienced in 2024 a year later. According to data published this Thursday by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, in 2025 only the construction of 11,104 new VPOs was completed, 22.7% less than in the previous year. Translating this difference to the concrete figure, it represents a reduction of just over 3,000 houses. And although in absolute terms that of last year is the second highest figure of the last decade, it represents a bucket of cold water for a type of housing that has not just taken off in Spain. Despite the relative consensus between the different Administrations to promote the construction of VPOs (and the political announcements that promise thousands of new apartments at an affordable price), their volume is still light years away from what was built in the nineties and until the outbreak of the Great Recession: between 1991 and 2008, on average, almost 60,000 subsidized homes were built in Spain per year.
The (with more than 14,000 OPV completed, the highest volume in a decade) anticipated the beginning of a OPV recovery sequence that, however, has not continued in the following 12 months. In addition to the drop in final ratings (which certify the public protection regime at the end of construction so that houses can be sold or rented), the Housing data also shows an abrupt decline in provisional ratings (which measure projects that are starting, and which will normally be completed in subsequent years). These went from 23,967 in 2024 to 15,593 last year, 35% less.
The majority of the VPOs completed in 2025, practically half, were destined for property, despite counting close to 500 fewer. And 37.4% were for rent, since it was not certified at some point. An absolute zero that had only been recorded on a single previous occasion since 2014: it happened in 2023.
The construction of protected housing – and, consequently, the expansion of the public park – is one of the main objectives of the State Housing Plan for the period 2026-2030 that the department headed by Isabel Rodríguez wants to approve soon. This has a total budget of 7,000 million euros, of which 40% (about 2,800 million) is allocated to the creation of affordable housing. However, the pace of construction seems not to keep up with the pace necessary to achieve the representativeness of the total stock of subsidized housing in Europe, which the Executive intends: while the community average is around 9%, in Spain it barely exceeds 3%, a third of that.
Madrid, in the center
The bulk of the fall in ready-to-market VPOs has been in Madrid, where their volume compared to what occurred in 2024 has been reduced by 4,641 homes. The capital region was, in absolute terms, the community that had been building the most protected housing in recent years. But last year, with 2,048 houses completed, it lost that status in favor of Catalonia (3,517 final qualifications, 1,624 more than the previous year).
Another relevant nuance between the situation of Madrid and that of Catalonia is that the first allows disqualification (that is, the VPO loses that condition and goes to the free market after a few years), while the second requires that the new protected park have that condition in perpetuity. In fact, one of the rules that Housing wants to introduce in the next state plan is that protected housing that has funding from the State can never be disqualified, although the autonomous communities will be able to promote other types of houses with public aid with their own funds.
In addition to Madrid, four other autonomous communities experienced a drop in VPOs completed in 2025. In the Basque Country, 772 fewer final qualifications were granted than in the previous year, bringing the total to 1,184. And the figures also decreased in the Valencian Community (-335, for a total of 407), Castilla y León (-254, with a total of 240) and the Balearic Islands (-149, since only 87 protected houses were finished).
On the opposite side of the table, in addition to Catalonia, the construction of VPOs gained momentum in Andalusia (691 more, and a total of 2,265) and in Aragon (195 more, with a total of 406). In Navarra, no variations were experienced (277 VPOs completed in 2025, the same as in 2024). And there were no variations in the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Murcia and La Rioja, nor in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. But these territories stand out for another reason: the Housing statistical series does not include a single definitive VPO rating there in the last two years.
Although the total amount of VPOs certified as such has been reduced in 2025 compared to the previous year, the weight of those intended for rental has grown in the last year. The percentage of the total stood at 37.4% last year; while in 2024 it was substantially lower: 25.9%. The reason is that houses intended for rent, but that do not allow acquisition, grew by 12.7%, to total 4,151. An increase that compensates for the reduction to zero of those homes that do offer the possibility of purchase in 2025, the second time that this figure has gone empty after 2013. The higher percentage of protected housing for rent is in line with what the Government wants to promote, although it is still far from the objective of achieving that at least half of the VPO is allocated to rental.
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