Housing will be one of the main topics at the next Board of Directors meeting of Irunvi, at a time when Irun faces one of the major challenges of the coming years: generating new opportunities for more people to develop their life projects in the city.
The mayor of Irun, Cristina Laborda, has highlighted that "housing is one of the main challenges in our country. But Irun starts from a position that we must know how to leverage. We have land, projects underway, and real possibilities to generate new housing. We have an opportunity and we want to seize it."
Irun currently has different developments that will significantly expand the city's residential stock in the coming years. Projects such as San Miguel-Anaka, Mendipe, Korrokoitz, or Lastaola are part of the horizon outlined in the municipal action plan approved following the declaration of Irun as a stressed residential market area, along with other measures aimed at better utilizing existing housing and spaces.
"We have to work in all directions. Build new housing, promote protected housing, rehabilitate, mobilize vacant housing, and seek new uses for spaces that currently do not have them. There is no single solution, and that is why we must take advantage of all the possibilities that Irun offers," the mayor stated.
Within this strategy, the Board of Irunvi has addressed the contracting of a new study that will provide an updated snapshot of housing in Irun and, above all, identify the city's needs in the coming years. The study will analyze supply and demand, prices, differences between neighborhoods, rehabilitation needs, and the characteristics of the residential stock.
It will also pay special attention to the difficulties young people face in accessing housing. In addition to the 400 surveys planned for the general population, another 200 will be conducted specifically among young people aged 30 to 35.
The work will help seek new opportunities to expand housing supply. Vacant or underused homes, empty commercial premises in various neighborhoods, and the ground floors of buildings currently used for offices, shops, or other activities will be analyzed to study if some of these spaces could be transformed into housing.
Furthermore, it will serve to evaluate the measures included in the Action Plan approved after Irun was declared a stressed residential market area and to analyze their real impact on citizens.
"We want to understand the reality well to make the best decisions, but we are clear about the objective: to leverage all the potential that Irun has to turn opportunities into housing, housing into homes, and homes into new life projects," the mayor concluded.
The Board of Irunvi also addressed the freezing of parking prices at Pinar for 2027, as well as the awarding of the contract for the electrification of the 30 spaces on the access floor of the Belartza car park, which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year.
