Tens of thousands of people marched in Barcelona on Saturday to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in and around the city, as well as in other parts of Catalonia.
Protesters cut off traffic on main avenues in the city centre, holding up signs in Catalan and Spanish that called for ‘Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living’, as well as: ‘The people without homes uphold their rights’.
According to the organisers, protesters travelled to Barcelona by rail from meet-up points in around 50 towns and cities throughout Catalonia, and by buses from Reus, Tarragona and Lleida.
There were also be more than 15 other marches from various Barcelona neighbourhoods that joined with the main demonstration.
The lack of affordable housing has become one of the leading concerns for Spain, mirroring the housing crunch across many parts of the world, including the United States. The Barcelona protest came a month after tens of thousands rallied against high rents in Madrid. ALSO READ: Lack of affordable housing and threat of mass tenants’ strike puts pressure on Spanish government.
Organisers said that over 170,000 had turned out on Saturday in the Catalan capital, while Barcelona’s police said they estimated some 22,000 marched.
Either way, the throngs of people clogging the streets recalled the massive separatist rallies at the height of the previous decade’s Catalan independence movement. Now, social concerns led by housing have displaced political crusades.
That is because the average rent for Spain has doubled in the last 10 years. The price per square metre has risen from €7.2 in 2014 to €13 this year, according to the popular online real estate website Idealista. The growth is even more acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. Incomes meanwhile have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.
A report by the Bank of Spain indicates that nearly 40% of Spaniards who rent properties dedicate an average of 40% of their income to paying rents and utilities, compared to the European Union average of 27% of renters who do so.
Rental prices have also been driven up by short-term renters including tourists. Many migrants to Spain are also disproportionately hit by the high rents because they often do not have enough savings.
Spain is near the bottom end of OECD countries with under 2% of all housing available being public housing for rent. The OECD average is 7%. Spain is far behind France, with 14%, Britain with 16%, and the Netherlands with 34%.
Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for Barcelona’s main Tenants Union (‘Sindicat de Llogateres I Llogaters‘) which helped organise the protest, said that renters should consider a ‘rent strike’ and cease paying their monthly rents in a mass protest movement.
Among the ‘clear and urgent’ demands of the Tenants’ Union is reducing rents by up to 50%. This is in response to the increases over the last decade, which they claim have been ‘systematically impoverishing’ families.
The housing activists organisation also wants rental contracts to be indefinite, to prevent ‘blackmail and insecurity.’
Other demands include taking action on vacant, tourist, and seasonal housing, so they can return to the residential market, and prohibiting ‘speculative buying’ and putting an end to the ‘hoarding’ of housing.
The rising discontent over housing is putting pressure on Spain’s governing socialist party, the PSOE, which leads a coalition on the national level and is in charge of Catalonia’s regional government and Barcelona’s city hall.
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