Barcelona, Spain (AP) – Protesters returned to the streets of Spain on Saturday, outraged by the high housing costs and could not see them.
Thousands of people marched in the capital, Madrid and more than 30 other cities, supported by housing activists and major Spanish trade unions.
In Spain, the housing crisis is particularly difficult, where there are strong traditions of home ownership and few traditions of renting public housing. Demand increases, rents increase. For many, buying a home is no longer affordable because market pressure and speculation drives price increases, especially in big cities and coastal areas.
A generation of young people said they had to stay with their parents or spend a lot of time sharing apartments, with little chance of saving enough time to buy a home in one day. High housing costs mean that even those who have traditionally paid well-paid jobs are struggling to make ends meet.
“I live with four people, but I still allocate 30% or 40% of my salary for rent,” said Mari Sánchez, a 26-year-old Madrid lawyer. “This doesn’t allow me to save. It doesn’t allow me to do anything. It doesn’t even allow me to buy a car. That’s what I’m currently in and many young people are living.”
Lack of public housing
Over the past decade, average rents in Spain have nearly doubled. Price per square meter rose from €7.2 ($7.9) in 2014 to €13 last year, according to Real Estate website MeSomesta. Madrid and Barcelona have seen greater growth.
Incomes failed to keep up, especially for young people in a country with long-term unemployment rates.
Spain has no public housing invested in other European countries to put renters into struggling renters.
Spain is close to the lowest end of the country in organizing economic cooperation and development, with public housing accounting for less than 2% of all available housing. The OECD average is 7%. In France it is 14%, the UK 16%, and the Netherlands 34%.
Angry renters pointed out that international hedge funds buy real estate in order to rent it to foreign tourists. The issue has been so politically accused that last year the city of Barcelona pledged to phase out all 10,000 licenses for its short-term rentals, many of whom were advertising on platforms like Airbnb by 2028.
Marchers in Madrid chanted “Let Airbnb leave our neighbors” on Saturday and raised signs for short-term rentals.
Authorities under pressure
The biggest move by the central government to curb housing costs is to provide regional authorities with a rental cap mechanism based on the price index established by the Ministry of Housing.
However, such measures have not proven enough to stop protests over the past two years. Experts say things may not improve anytime soon.
“This is not the first, and given the severity of the housing crisis, it is not the last (housing protest),” Ignasi Martí, a professor at Esade Business School and head of its dignified housing observatory, said in an email.
“We have seen (the financial crisis between 2008 and 2012) (the protest movement) continue until a certain economic recovery and reduce social tensions,” Marti added.
