The City of San Sebastian will ask the Donostiarras about converting the premises into homes

The City of San Sebastián will open a public consultation in the next few days to ask about the ordinance regulating the use of the premises, which will be amended to "allow the transformation of the premises into housing for the donostiarras." "It is yet another tool to provide real solutions to the greatest challenge of the moment," said the mayor of San Sebastián.

The current regulation datesbackto 2011, and, as the mayor stressed, "we are going to untie a knot that comes from far away to speed up solutions to the housing needs of the Donostiarras."

Since the entry into force of the current ordinance on changes of use, 133 premises have been converted into housing in San Sebastián. The greatest limitation has been that access to housing has been made from within the portal. With the amendment of the ordinance, the City Council has carried out an in-depth study and analysed the buildings that can be accessed directly from the public road, as explained by Insausti.

According to theHousing Observatory, 5,494 premises of more than 35 m2 are currently located in Donostia-San Sebastián on the ground floor (excluding premises located in industrial parks and shopping malls), of which 860 are inactive, or 15.7 per cent. The neighbourhoods of Martutene, Ategorrieta-Ulia, Añorga or Altza far exceed this percentage by more than 30 per cent.