This week the Madrid City Council has approved two important urban development actions. On the one hand, the Governing Board has given the initial green light to the modification of the urban development project for the area surrounding the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, promoted by Real Madrid. On the other, it has authorised a new transfer of 30.97 million euros to the Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo (EMVS Madrid), with the aim of maintaining the construction of public housing for affordable rent.
In the case of the stadium, the new project will adapt the urban development to the redesign of the Bernabéu and the future reform of the Santiago Bernabéu Metro station (Line 10), which will have three new accesses and universal accessibility conditions. The works, with an investment of more than 19.6 million euros to be paid by the club, will increase the pedestrian area from 14,500 to 40,500 sqm, create 4,500 sqm of landscaped areas and plant more than 300 trees.
The area will be renovated in four large areas: Calle Rafael Salgado (already completed), Avenida Concha Espina, the Castellana frontage and Calle Padre Damián. Among the planned actions are the creation of a new 20,000 sqm plaza in front of Castellana, the widening of pavements around the entire perimeter, the incorporation of 36 parking spaces for residents and the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems.
The City Council has also approved a third financial contribution in 2025 for EMVS Madrid. Of the total 30.97 million euros transferred, 12.41 million euros will be used for running costs and 18.55 million euros for the construction of new affordable rental housing developments. The municipal company already has nearly 6,200 homes in various stages of design and construction, 1,913 of them in 24 developments under tender or under construction.
Since 2019, EMVS Madrid has raffled off 4,138 public housing units, and during the current term of office it has completed more homes than in the entire previous term. Programmes such as ReViVa, aimed at recovering vacant housing to incorporate it into the public rental stock, are also active. According to data from the Ministry of Housing, the capital leads investment in public housing in Spain, with more than 811 million invested between 2020 and 2023.