The proletarians that Franco turned into owners

Palm"We want a Spain of property owners, not of proletarians." This is the famous phrase attributed to José Luis Arrese, the first Minister of Housing during the Franco regime (1957-1960), and is related to the one uttered in 1946 by Amintore Fanfani, the leader of the Italian Christian Democrats:Non tutti proletarian, tutti ownerIn the midst of the postwar period, many Spaniards abandoned their villages to live in the cities, which had become the new economic hubs. This exodus highlighted the country's housing crisis. The first law on affordable housing dated back to 1911, which ended up housing large families in quite unsanitary conditions. The government lowered the pre-war rents, simultaneously extending contracts indefinitely and promoting a plan for socially protected housing (VPO), but, in reality, this last plan was a tool to defuse any social unrest. The plan was drawn up in 1954, three years before the creation of the relevant ministry and one year after the Madrid Pacts, with which Spain abandoned self-sufficiency thanks to financial support from the United States. The housing could be repaid in a maximum of 10 years. Despite very high interest rates, the price of the apartments was reasonable.

Franco presented himself as a "magnanimous" man willing to bring the American dream to Spain. Instead of a house with a garden and a dog in the suburbs, he promised his fellow citizens a small apartment in an apartment building. For the most skeptical, this proposal was a kind of "dungeon" or "beehive" that alienated the working class. The commission went to the National Housing Institute (INV) and the Obra Sindical de la Hogar (OSH), created in 1939. The NO-DO, the regime's propaganda newscast, immortalized some of the key presentations to the beneficiaries, which were completed by local and state authorities.

The Spain of the "Green Awnings"

The fate of 'New Spain' would be governed by the Limited Income Housing Act, passed in the same year 1954. The law sought to stimulate the private construction of affordable homes, while maintaining state control, which regulated maximum sales prices (they could also be rented), minimum dimensions (after a few years there was the option of putting it up for sale). In return, the builder received a series of fiscal and administrative advantages.

It was the beginning of the boom of construction, especially high-rise buildings, up to 13 stories high. The regime could expropriate land to give it to developers. That Spain would be labeled "the Spain of the green awnings," as this was the distinctive feature of balconies and windows in many working-class neighborhoods. These were buildings with simple structures and good sanitary conditions, in line with the modern architecture movement prevailing in Europe.

The 1954 National Housing Plan also drew on the influence of the 5th National Assembly of Architects, which took place in 1949 with various events organized in Palma, Barcelona, and Valencia. The event was born from the urgent need to design a new urban plan with affordable housing, in response to the problems caused by the rural exodus—many families were choosing to build shacks on the outskirts of cities.

In the Balearic Islands, the architect of the housing subsidized by Franco's regime was Palma-born Antoni Roca Cabanellas (1909–1986), son of the prominent architect Francesc Roca Simó, designer of the Casasayas modernist houses in the Plaça del Mercat de Ciutat. In 1940, upon his father's death, he had begun supervising the construction of the fascist monolith at the Feixina, which had begun a year earlier—the inauguration was in 1947. He would later become the OSH's delegate architect in Mallorca, and from 1957 onward, in Madrid. In 1943, he also took over as school architect, replacing the late Guillem Forteza. One of his most important projects in this field was the La Salle school (1950–1954), which currently houses the courts on Avenida de Alemania.

Korea

In 1941, Roca designed his first social housing development in Palma's Molinar del Levante neighborhood, on Joan Alcover and Joan Maragall Streets. In 1947, he built two more in Alaró and Inca, respectively named after Generalísimo Franco and José Antonio—popularly known as Casas Barato. His most emblematic social project in the city dates back to 1955. It was in the Camp Redó neighborhood, next to General Riera Street. It was still a rural area, not far from the city center and well connected by tram. On a 22,000-square-meter site, 568 apartments were built, ranging from two to three bedrooms. They were distributed in 26 detached blocks, most of them parallel to each other, which, due to their shape, would be called "shoeboxes." This layout created an open public space equivalent to 56% of the total surface area and guaranteed ventilation and natural light for all the homes.

Initially, the houses of Camp Redó were, like those of Alaró, named after Generalissimo Franco. However, over time, they became known as Corea. Other Spanish capitals (Huesca, A Coruña, León, Toledo, and Palencia) also had neighborhoods with the same name. They were named in allusion to the great communist enemy of the Cold War and because of the atmosphere of isolation and poverty that characterized them. In 1957, Roca inaugurated another development of social housing in the Virgen de Lluc neighborhood, on the outskirts of Palma, on the border with Marratxí. He would also carry out similar projects in Maó and Ibiza, in Virgen del Carmen and Santa Margarita, respectively—the latter has now disappeared.

In the 1960s, there were other neighborhoods where subsidized housing was also built, but they did not bear the signature of the renowned architect. In Palma, this was the case in the neighborhoods of Son Gotleu, next to the ring road, and Indioteria, near the Son Castelló industrial estate. These were suburban areas that welcomed many peninsulars who came to work in boom Tourist attractions. They would also be built in the Ponent district, in the neighborhoods of Son Roca and Son Ximelis.

Franco's middle class

Today, some public housing complexes promoted by the Franco regime still bear Ministry of Housing plaques on their facades depicting the Falangist yoke and arrows, which, according to the Law of Democratic Memory, should be removed. Architect Cristina Llorente Roca offers the following assessment: "They were ultra-cheap homes because they were made with low-quality, highly defective materials and had been built in haste. As their owners were low-income, many couldn't afford the repairs. Thus, some of these social complexes. Without a doubt, Franco abandoned those proletarians he had turned into homeowners." However, this doesn't seem to matter to the dictator, who died in 1975, aged 82, having seen his dream fulfilled. He confessed to the American diplomat Vernon Walters: "My true monument is not that cross in the Valley [of the Fallen], but the Spanish middle class. When I took power, it didn't exist. I leave it in the Spain of tomorrow."

In 1985, Felipe González's first socialist government put an end to the rental policies of the Franco regime. Miguel Boyer, Minister of Economy and Finance, promoted the famous 'Boyer Law' to liberalize the housing market. The law, which would trigger the first real estate bubble, sparked widespread public outrage by eliminating the mandatory extension of so-called 'old rent' contracts, with insignificant prices and not subject to any adjustments. It was an extension that could be extended to the tenant's children and grandchildren.

Today, the Balearic Islands are one of the territories in Spain with the lowest percentage of public housing, 0.6%, compared to the European average of 9%. At the same time, paradoxically, with a population that continues to grow, they are the region where it is most expensive to buy and rent an apartment. The good news arrived in 2023. The prestigious magazine The Sketch He devoted a nearly 400-page volume to the social rental buildings promoted by the Balearic Housing Institute (IBAVI). He highlighted the construction techniques and materials used (wood and sandstone). According to the publication, this is a quality "alternative model" to address not only the islands' residential emergency, but also the climate crisis.