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Capacity Labs

Mission 02

Living in Madrid

Making Madrid a better, more accessible place to build a life.

A schematic map of Madrid: three ring roads, M-30, M-40 and M-50, and six radial motorways around Km 0, with dots representing homes becoming sparser away from the center.M-30M-40M-50A-1A-2A-3A-4A-5A-6Km 0
Madrid, schematic. Dots are illustrative, not data.

First priority

Housing.

We investigate the challenges shaping everyday life in Madrid and work toward practical ways to improve them.

The difficulty of finding, affording and keeping a suitable home affects almost every other part of life in the city. We combine independent research, policy analysis and software development to work out what could actually improve it.

One initiative develops guidance for the housing system. One tool helps people navigate it.

System scale

Madrid Housing

A research and development initiative working toward a more accessible, affordable and secure housing system in Madrid.

Research under way

Personal scale

Madrid Home Advisor

A personal housing advisor for finding and renting a home in Madrid. One practical intervention within Madrid Housing.

In development

How they inform each other
  1. 01Research identifies problems and promising interventions. · Madrid Housing
  2. 02Software puts appropriate interventions into practice. · Madrid Home Advisor
  3. 03Real-world use shows what works and what remains difficult. · Madrid Home Advisor
  4. 04That learning informs future research and recommendations. · Madrid Housing

↺ And the loop starts again.

The playbook is the destination. Research is how we establish what belongs in it.

We're not researching housing just to document how hard it is.

The Madrid Housing Playbook

A practical, evidence-based playbook: a living set of principles, guidelines and recommendations that can inform future housing initiatives, public policy and institutional decisions in Madrid.

Some recommendations will concern public policy. Others will concern institutional coordination, service delivery, market practices or software. Our role is to investigate what could work and help build a credible foundation for action, independently of any political party.

Research under way Living, revisable, unfinished

The eight questions it aims to answer

How could Madrid…

  1. 01Increase the availability of suitable housing?
  2. 02Expand access to genuinely affordable homes?
  3. 03Make better use of existing residential properties?
  4. 04Protect residents from avoidable insecurity and displacement?
  5. 05Improve how people find and secure a home?
  6. 06Coordinate housing with transport and infrastructure?
  7. 07Improve cooperation between public institutions and other actors?
  8. 08Measure whether interventions actually improve outcomes?
How every guideline earns its place
Problem
What specific problem does it address, and for whom?
Evidence
What do research and experience elsewhere suggest?
Who can act
Which institutions, organizations or people would need to take part?
Constraints
What makes it hard to implement, and what are the trade-offs?
Measurement
How would we know whether it is working?

What it aims to do

  1. Understand your circumstances
  2. Identify suitable opportunities
  3. Evaluate the trade-offs
  4. Prepare your applications
  5. Understand rental conditions
  6. Make a better-informed decision

Software initiative · In development

Madrid Home Advisor

A personal housing advisor for finding and renting a home in Madrid.

Finding a place to rent often means moving fast, comparing imperfect options and making big decisions with incomplete information. Madrid Home Advisor helps people navigate the rental market with more confidence and support.

Later, possibly: a more proactive assistant that monitors opportunities and manages parts of the search.

Living in Madrid is broader than housing.

Other challenges that shape life in the city may follow. For now, housing is the clear priority.