The city council of Salamanca has awarded nearly 4 million euros in building rehabilitation grants to 242 residential communities over the past eight years, according to figures released this week by the city's Municipal Housing and Urban Planning Board.
The board, known by its Spanish initials as the PMVU and run under the administration of Mayor Carlos Garcia Carbayo, presented the data during a review of active and completed grant programs by its governing council.
On top of that cumulative figure, a new 2025 grant round with a budget of 1 million euros is currently being processed after receiving 320 applications. The round targets two priorities: the removal and replacement of construction elements containing asbestos, and accessibility improvements designed to allow buildings to serve the widest possible variety of personal circumstances and needs.
Who qualifies
Property owners' associations and sole owners of collective residential buildings are eligible to apply, as are owners of single-family homes. Buildings located within designated "programmed rehabilitation residential environments" do not qualify, as those zones are served by their own separate funding programs.
Eligible works
According to municipal sources, the grants cover three categories of work. The first is the removal and replacement of asbestos-containing construction elements. The second is accessibility improvements to common areas in multi-unit buildings or in single-family homes. The third is complementary conservation work carried out on those same spaces.
Projects involving asbestos removal must comply with Royal Decree 396/2006 of March 31 and with the Municipal Ordinance on Asbestos Removal in Salamanca, which the full city council approved on May 9, 2025. Work required to replace materials after asbestos has been removed is also eligible for the subsidy.
How applications are ranked
Grants are distributed through a competitive concurrence process. All applications are ranked against each other using the priority criteria set out in the program rules, and funding is awarded to the highest-scoring submissions in descending order until the available budget is exhausted.
