Madrid targets its last empty plots for homes and public facilities

Madrid’s City Council is trying to fill the city’s last vacant plots, old factories and stalled development sites with housing, green space and public facilities. According to 20minutos Madrid, the projects range from the former Metro depot at Cuatro Caminos to the Tubos Borondo factory in Puente de Vallecas. Several of them have been stuck for decades.

What happened

The Ayuntamiento de Madrid (City Council) says only about 2% of the city’s land is still undeveloped. Its plan is to build on gaps inside established neighbourhoods rather than push the city further out. Deputy mayor Inma Sanz has said the council is “making an effort to fill gaps with facilities and housing”.

The council is also changing its planning rules. A new Plan Estratégico Municipal (PEM, municipal strategic plan) will replace the Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (the city’s master zoning plan), which dates from 1997. The urban planning department, led by Borja Carabante, presented a draft at the end of 2025. It expects initial approval in early 2027. The aim is simpler rules and less bureaucracy around land use, especially for housing. At the plan’s presentation, mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said that “Madrid cannot wait; it needs quick answers.”

The main sites named by 20minutos Madrid are:

• Cocheras de Cuatro Caminos (Chamberí): the former Metro depot near Reina Victoria and Bravo Murillo. The plan is for 443 homes, more than 16,000 square metres of green and open space, and a social facility. Since the first proposal in 2014, earlier planning approvals have been annulled or overturned by the courts. The council ratified the development agreement in February 2025 and is now preparing a final plan that combines vivienda protegida (price-controlled, publicly protected housing) with stronger legal footing.
• Tiziano-Dulcinea (Tetuán): a half-built block near AZCA and the Paseo de la Castellana, covered by a planning agreement from 1999. In July 2026 the Junta de Gobierno (the council’s executive board) gave initial approval to a revised urbanisation project. It allows for 165 homes and a central public square.
• Tubos Borondo (Puente de Vallecas): a disused 137,074 square metre industrial site. In June 2026 the council gave provisional approval to a planning change for 1,400 homes, 35% of them with some form of public protection, plus green areas, facilities and commercial uses.
• Vallehermoso (Chamberí): an empty council plot at the corner of Avenida de Filipinas and Calle Jesús Maestro. It is planned for a cultural centre of up to 12 floors with an auditorium, a library and study rooms. The mayor called Chamberí “one of the districts with the fewest facilities”.
• Paseo de la Habana, 208 (Chamartín): 9,943 square metres of ONCE (Spain’s national organisation for blind people) land will be reorganised for housing and more than 2,000 square metres of public green space. Calle de la Tahona will also be widened.
• Piscinas de San Miguel (Opañel, Carabanchel): the reparcelación (the legal redivision of plots that comes before building) of this roughly 25,000 square metre former pool complex has just been approved. It will hold 130 protected homes, more than 5,600 square metres of green space, a social facility and new streets.

What it means for you

None of these projects is taking applications for homes yet, according to the source. If you are looking for affordable housing in Madrid, the protected housing planned at Opañel, Borondo and Cuatro Caminos is worth following. The source does not give timelines for when building will start or how homes will be allocated.

If you live in Puente de Vallecas, the Borondo project is meant to remove a physical barrier that cuts residents off from the Campus Sur of the Universidad Politécnica, the Hospital Infanta Leonor and the Centro Deportivo Municipal Palomeras. If you live in Carabanchel, the Opañel plan aims to improve links to the Parque de Comillas. Chamberí residents should eventually get a large new cultural centre. That project first needs a planning change because the plot is currently zoned for sports use.

What to watch next

Final approval for Borondo depends on the Comunidad de Madrid, the regional government. The PEM is due for initial approval in early 2027. The council is still writing the final plan for Cuatro Caminos.

The largest site is Abroñigal, an Adif (state railway infrastructure company) freight terminal between the Atocha tracks and the M-30 in Vallecas. It is part of Madrid Nuevo Sur, a project for about 300,000 square metres of offices, homes, shops and facilities. The plan has been discussed since 2008. Adif is gradually moving its logistics operations to Vicálvaro, and the City Council wants a new agreement with Spain’s central government to develop the site.

Source: 20minutos Madrid