How a protected home is allocated: draw, points scale and quotas

• Public draw (sorteo). Each admitted application gets a number and the numbers are drawn, usually before a notary at a public event. It is the most common system in large developments.
• Points scale (baremo). Objective circumstances are scored (time on the register, income, dependants, ties to the town, disability) and applicants are ranked from highest to lowest. There is no chance here: there is your file.
• Time on the register. The date you registered decides. This is the system that most rewards having registered early.
• Direct allocation by the developer. In private protected housing developments, the developer sells directly to people who meet the requirements, often first come, first served. Here speed does matter.

A call for 100 homes almost never draws 100 homes among everyone. It reserves blocks (cupos): a percentage for young people, another for large or single-parent families, another for people with disabilities, another for adapted homes, sometimes for older people or for victims of gender-based violence.

If you fit a quota, you compete within a much smaller group. It is the most effective lever you have, and it is free: you only have to prove it within the deadline. Many people entitled to a quota end up in the general draw because they did not submit a certificate they already had.

It is worth saying clearly: eligible is not awarded. In high-pressure markets demand outstrips supply many times over. In the Illa Glòries development in Barcelona there were 11,243 applications for 238 homes: about a 2% chance for anyone in the general draw.

That figure is not there to discourage you, it is there to help you plan. With those numbers, the right strategy is not to wait for the perfect development: it is to apply to every call you meet the requirements for, for years, and keep your registration alive. The people who end up with a protected home are almost never the ones who got lucky the first time; they are the ones who applied twelve times.

You can see the reference figure and how we calculate it on the draws page.

The draw does not just hand out the homes: it puts all applicants in order. Those behind the cut-off form the reserve list (lista de reserva), and that list really is used. There are always withdrawals: people who cannot get financing, who fail to prove something in time, who move to another city or who have already bought.

So when the list comes out, look for your number even if you were not picked, and keep it. In large developments it is normal for dozens of reserve positions to be called over the following months. If they call you and your papers are not up to date, they move on to the next person.

1. Request for documents. You get a short deadline to prove everything you declared. This is where most allocations fall through.
2. Check of requirements. They verify your income and home ownership again at that moment, not at the time of your application.
3. Choice of home. In the draw order, you choose among the homes available: floor, orientation, and any linked parking space or storage room.
4. Contract and financing. Signing the purchase or rental contract and, if you are buying, the mortgage. This is where the ICO guarantee (aval ICO) can decide whether you manage the down payment or not.
5. Title deed (escritura) and handover. In a new build more than a year can pass between allocation and getting the keys.