Spain’s acute housing crisis and high rental prices are together piling pressure on the minority coalition government of socialist (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, as the measures he has so far adopted have yielded few results, while frustration boils over among beleaguered citizens.
Thousands protested on Sunday in Madrid to demand more affordable housing amid rising anger from Spaniards who feel they are being priced out of the market.
Under the slogan ‘La vivienda es un derecho, no un negocio’ (‘Housing is a right, not a business’), residents marched in the Spanish capital to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions.
12,000 people took to the streets, according to the Spanish government. According to the organisers, however, 22,000 protesters thronged central Madrid to vent their anger at spiralling costs and the scarcity of new homes, as well as threatening landlords with a rent strike. Other cities, including Barcelona and Valencia, are facing similar threats of a tenants’ strike.
‘If one tenant stops paying, the problem lies with them. But if ten thousand tenants agree not to pay, the problem lies with the landlords and the governments that support them. That is what the Rent Strike we are heading towards consists of,’ the Madrid Tenants Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas e Inquilinos de Madrid) wrote on X (Twitter).
Housing has been an unsolvable conundrum for successive governments in Spain, which remains scarred by a 2008 property market crash that accompanied the global recession.
The price of a square metre for rent has soared by 82% over the past 10 years, according to online property platform Idealista.
That increase comfortably outstripped average wages, which only creeped up by 17% in the same time, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), making finding a home mission impossible for low-income households.
Compounding the problem is the dearth of social housing, which only makes up 2.5% of the total stock compared with an EU average of 9.3%.
The crisis has dogged Sánchez’s government which prides itself on defending the working classes, as tensions simmer with left-wing allies in parliament and exasperated citizens grow increasingly impatient.
‘Rents are suffocating us and no one does anything,’ said the national tenants’ union.
‘The majority of society has been paying for the housing crisis for too long, while a minority gets rich at the expense of their work.’
Trade union CCOO said access to housing had become a ‘fantasy for large parts of society’ and urged the state to enshrine the right to ‘a decent and suitable home’ in the constitution.
The government introduced a landmark law in May last year that plans to boost social housing, cap rents in areas with the greatest market squeeze and punishments for owners who leave their properties empty.
But the legislation has so far failed to rein in galloping rent hikes, which hit 10.2% year-on-year between July and September with peaks of 15% in large cities such as Madrid and Valencia.
The Bank of Spain says 600,000 new homes are needed by the end of 2025 to meet the population’s needs but estimates fewer than 100,000 are built each year.
The law has also sparked a stand-off between Madrid and some regional governments responsible for implementing it.
Sánchez defended his government’s record on Monday, saying it had increased resources dedicated to housing eightfold since he took office in 2018, but conceded ‘magic wands’ would not solve the ‘difficult’ problem.
He said housing would be his government’s ‘absolute priority’ and wanted to avoid ‘a Spain with wealthy owners and poor tenants’, announcing a housing package of €200 million for the young.
The government recently announced the end of so-called ‘golden visas’ that granted residence permits to foreigners who invest in real estate, who critics accuse of encouraging speculation in big cities. ALSO READ: Spain to scrap ‘golden visas’ that allow wealthy non-EU residents to obtain residency.
It has also promised to crack down on the spread of short-let tourist apartments, which reduce the number of homes available on the market, and accelerate the construction of new houses. ALSO READ: Spanish government to limit short-term rentals and tourist flats to address housing crisis.
ALSO READ: Barcelona wants to revoke all city’s 10,101 tourist apartment licences by Nov 2028.
Hoy ha empezado algo imparable. Ya no hay vuelta atrás.
— Sindicato de Inquilinas e Inquilinos de Madrid (@InquilinatoMad) October 13, 2024
Si tú también lo tienes claro, afíliate al Sindicato y únete a la lucha.
A por la huelga de alquileres, vamos a acabar con el rentismo juntas 🔥https://t.co/hVS3h94S0H pic.twitter.com/hoQvASTHC5
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