Madrid City Council has authorised the simultaneous carrying out of the infrastructure and construction works for the first phase of Valdecarros, according to the Compensation Board. The permission, granted on 5 October, will allow developers to start building once they have obtained the relevant licences, without having to wait for the site preparation to be completed.
This development follows the final approval of the land reallocation and paves the way for the development of the first 13,371 homes, within a project expected to exceed 51,000. According to projections provided by those in charge, the first developments are set to begin between the end of this year and early 2027.
The President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, visited the development on Wednesday alongside the President of Valdecarros Madrid, Luis Roca de Togores, who highlighted the shift in phase following the completion of the planning process: “We are moving from planning to construction, from land to housing and, ultimately, from the project to the city.”
More than half of the homes will be social housing
Located in the south-east of the capital, within the M-45 ring road and as an extension of the Ensanche de Vallecas, Valdecarros covers 19 million sqm and will have a capacity for around 150,000 residents. Its development is divided into eight phases, of which the first three are under construction, with the initial phase at an advanced stage.
Around 55 per cent of the planned homes will have some form of social housing. During the visit, Díaz Ayuso pointed out that the Community of Madrid will develop more than 10,000 social housing units across 780,000 sqm and that residential growth will be accompanied by public initiatives to provide facilities and services.
The plan sets aside almost 40 per cent of the site for green spaces, where more than 110,000 trees are to be planted, and provides for more than 127 kilometres of cycle lanes and footpaths. The design aims to ensure that all homes are located within 200 metres of a green space.
Land sold for around 1,500 private-sector homes
Commercial activity within the development has progressed in parallel with the construction work. The first five rounds of land sales by the Compensation Board have brought 134,638 sqm of buildable land for private-sector housing onto the market, with capacity for around 1,500 units spread across some fifteen developments.
Companies with land or a presence in the area include Aedas Homes, Azora, Amenábar, Culmia, Habitat, Ibosa, Landco, Metrovacesa, Premier and Pryconsa, alongside other developers. In addition to private sector involvement, the City Council, the Community of Madrid and the State are also stakeholders, as they own a portion of the land.
According to estimates released by Valdecarros, the development will mobilise more than 8,000 million euros of investment over the next decade. Its organisers estimate that it will generate more than 450,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout the project’s implementation and that, once completed, it will support more than 70,000 jobs linked to the neighbourhood’s economic activity.
