The Generalitat activates artificial intelligence to track the 87,906 empty apartments that official records ignore in Tarragona

The Generalitat activates artificial intelligence to track the 87,906 empty apartments that official records ignore in Tarragona

The Generalitat designs with the city councils an artificial intelligence system to detect empty homes given the discrepancy between the census and the large owner registries in Tarragona.

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The Generalitat de Catalunya is preparing with the city councils an artificial intelligence system to detect empty homes in Catalonia, in a market where the real dimension of the problem remains unclosed even in public records.

Tension arises with the data available in Tarragona itself. While the 2021 census of the National Statistics Institute counts 87,906 unoccupied homes in the province, 15.85% of the total stock, the regional registry of large holders reduces this pool to 5,429 properties and only 2,005 are listed as empty and habitable.

The cross-referencing of records leaves thousands of homes off the same map

In Tarragona city, the difference also narrows when looking at the details. The Generalitat's registry lists 495 homes owned by large property owners, and only 146 are listed as empty and in condition to be inhabited.

Furthermore, 107 of these apartments are listed as illegally occupied, and another 885 properties in the provincial total require rehabilitation before they can return to the residential market.

Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the Tenants' Union, maintains that administrations still do not have a sufficiently accurate registry and calls for broadening the focus beyond the strict concept of an empty apartment.

"Administrations do not yet have a sufficiently accurate registry" - Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the Tenants' Union

This discrepancy between databases had also emerged in previous studies. A 2019 report by Servei Municipal de l'Habitatge i Actuacions Urbanes, S.A. located 485 empty homes owned by financial institutions in Tarragona, mainly in the city center, Bonavista, and Sant Pere i Sant Pau areas.

In parallel, the market maintains another significant stock, with 9,588 new unsold homes in 2025 in the province, a figure that represents a decrease of 2.4% compared to the previous year and coexists with the scarce finished housing in recent years.

The tax surcharge barely uncovers a portion of the empty stock

The Tarragona City Council collected 36,008 euros in 2025 from the IBI surcharge of up to 150% applied to properties owned by large holders that have been empty for more than two years without justified cause.

The figure shows that the fiscal route exists, but also that its scope is limited compared to the volume of homes appearing in the various registries. Aragonès adds that more resources and specialized personnel are needed throughout the Administration to investigate potential cases.

It also warns of the legal difficulty.

"Large property owners usually have legal resources to appeal administrative actions and prolong procedures" - Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the Tenants' Union

Faced with that strategy, the Cambra de la Propietat Urbana de Tarragona and the UNESCO Chair of Housing of the URV argue that incentives can be more effective than coercive measures to mobilize the residential stock, a debate that coincides with the public reservation of land announced in the province.

The system that the Generalitat is now designing with the city councils starts from that same underlying problem, because in the province there are 87,906 unoccupied dwellings in the 2021 census, 5,429 properties owned by large holders in the regional registry, and 2,005 empty and habitable apartments within that last group.