The minister stressed that the summit offers an opportunity for knowledge sharing and alliance building, highlighting the indispensable collaboration of all stakeholders: "Neither research, nor financial institutions, nor the business sector, nor administrations, nor social entities can individually resolve a challenge of this magnitude."
Paneque stated that "Catalonia wishes to contribute to this debate with the conviction that guaranteeing housing depends on the combination of regulation, investment, production capacity, and cooperation." She added, "If housing is one of the foundations upon which people's opportunities are built, we have a duty to understand each other and work together."
She emphasized that access to housing is a global challenge requiring joint efforts in areas such as urban planning, financing, construction capacity, market regulation, innovation, and social policies. The minister reiterated the defense "of guaranteeing the right to housing as the essential conviction guiding the Catalan Government in the central issue of balancing the relationship between private property and its social function."
Paneque explained that the traditional interpretation of housing as a patrimonial asset or investment has overshadowed its role as a structure that influences job opportunities, educational continuity, and healthcare access, and that "without this stability, equal opportunities are compromised."
As an example of instruments to correct imbalances, she cited market regulation, stating that "data supports that regulation has contributed to containing price escalation." She detailed that between the first quarter of 2024 and the second of 2026, rental prices increased by 0.7% in designated tense residential market areas, by 11% in municipalities where this regulation is not applied, and decreased by 4.4% in Barcelona.
The minister insisted on the need to sustainably increase the supply of affordable housing, setting a goal of reaching 15% public ownership housing within twenty years. She also mentioned the "Emancipation Loans" for individuals under forty, an initiative that has already benefited over 2,000 young people.
Finally, she emphasized that "a city cannot maintain its vitality if the people who work, study, and build their lives there cannot live there," and that "if housing excludes a part of the population, the city weakens."
