Lleida City Council (the Paeria) will facilitate the construction of around 70 homes around Plaça del Dipòsit, in Lleida’s historic centre, according to SEGRE. The municipal technical housing committee has agreed to press ahead with new land acquisitions: a new expropriation, two land readjustments and a purchase. They add to the expropriation already under way between Boters and Múrcia streets to build another 80 flats for the university community, according to the same newspaper.

Four operations

The first is a new expropriation on the square itself, between Veguer de Carcassona and Múrcia streets. Acquiring several plots will allow, together with the sites already owned by the municipal urban agenda company (EMAU), a single plot to be formed from Múrcia street to Plaça dels Gramàtics, according to SEGRE. The sector includes the pay-and-display car park where a temporary restaurant has now been set up and several adjoining buildings. The Paeria estimates that about 22 flats with shops on the ground floor could be built there, although the final number may vary depending on the project and the size of the homes.

Two more operations will be processed through land readjustment under the cooperation model, led by the City Council. One is the space on the other side of the square, next to the building giving access to the Dipòsit de l’Aigua, between the square and Assalt street, where an estimated 13 homes could be built. The other is the block between Veguer de Carcassona, Múrcia, Boters and Tallada streets, now a pay-and-display car park, where 16 homes, commercial premises and parking are planned, according to the same newspaper.

Under readjustment by cooperation, ownership shares are divided among the plot owners, who must pay their proportional share of the development costs, according to SEGRE. The fourth operation is planned between Panera and Sant Carles streets, next to the former soup kitchen building: the City Council will buy the land and develop it directly, with about 21 homes and a shop.

The expropriation already under way

In January the Paeria announced that it would expropriate four areas of the historic centre to allow 145 new homes to be built, according to SEGRE. In total, 4,458 square metres with a maximum buildable floor area of 14,473 square metres, belonging to about 30 owners. Between 30 and 42 people live in those buildings, according to the same newspaper. The mayor, Fèlix Larrosa, described it at the time as «l’expropiació més gran feta a la ciutat» (the biggest expropriation ever carried out in the city).

The first area is the 1,700-square-metre property between Múrcia, Veguer de Carcassona and Boters streets and Plaça Cervantes, where between 60 and 70 flats for the university community were planned in January. Larrosa said the aim was for the flats to be used, under a co-living model, by students, lecturers and researchers of the University of Lleida, given their proximity to the rectorate, according to SEGRE. That area will be transferred through a public tender for surface rights so that its developer can apply for state aid, and the EMAU will support the people living in the blocks to be expropriated, according to the same newspaper. Larrosa did not give the cost of the expropriation at the time.

The objections

The expropriation of that block received 30 objections, Larrosa reported in early September, as reported by SEGRE. The City Council sent 185 notifications to the owners affected, «per la qual cosa han al·legat menys d’un terç dels afectats» (so fewer than a third of those affected objected), the mayor said.

In a statement on 4 September, the Paeria announced that it would take to the 25 September plenary session the final approval of the expropriation of that block, between Plaça Cervantes and Múrcia, Boters and Veguer de Carcassona streets, where about seventy homes are planned, mainly for young people and the university community. According to the same statement, it is the first of the four areas designated for expropriation in the district, and almost all the sites on Plaça del Dipòsit are already municipally owned.

The plan for the district

According to the municipal statement, the operation is part of the Comprehensive Plan for the Historic Centre, which aims to create between 600 and 700 homes in the district, through refurbishment and new building. Larrosa said it would allow active policies in favour of new affordable and sustainable housing, and described homes with lifts and aerothermal heating where anyone wanting to live in the historic centre could build a life. According to La Ciutat, the plan’s main aims include bringing residents back and strengthening residential activity in the district.

The same plan includes other projects. The former Cervantes school will in future house the headquarters of the Consortium for Linguistic Normalisation, according to the Paeria. The City Council has an open call for 180,000 euros in direct grants for opening local shops and is tendering a 1.3 million euro contract for socio-cultural activities in the historic centre, according to the same statement. The refurbishment of the area around the La Panera art centre, which will incorporate the former church of Sant Martí, should be under way next year.

What is not on record

None of the sources cited records the result of the 25 September plenary vote on the expropriation of the Plaça Cervantes block or the cost of the expropriations. The number of flats for the university community varies with the date: between 60 and 70 in January, about seventy in September and 80 in Tuesday’s report.

Sources and verification

Information based on SEGRE, 13 October 2026; the Paeria statement of 4 September 2026; SEGRE, 27 January 2026; SEGRE, 1 September 2026; and La Ciutat, 4 September 2026. It has not been possible to consult the technical housing committee’s agreement or the minutes of the September plenary. The Paeria was not contacted before publication.