Spain tackles housing ‘social emergency’ as rents double

Blanka Castro puts on a builder’s helmet before opening the door in his kitchen. Inside it, there is a large hole in the roof that drips the water and it seems as if it can fall at any moment.

Because the kitchen is useless, Blanca has to wash its dishes in the bathtub, and she has improved cooking area with a gas camp stove in one corner of her living room.

Many of his fellow tenants have similar problems in this apartment block near Atocha railway station in Madrid. They say that the company owns the building, in recent months, the requests for basic maintenance have stopped responding, as they have been informed that it will not renew their fare contracts.

“Current fare bubbles are encouraging many big owners what they are doing here,” says Blanca. “Which is to get rid of the current tenants, which are long -standing, so that short -term tourists are flat, or simply increase the rent.”

Blanca and his fellow tenants vowed to stay in the building that they see as an attempt by the owners to push them out, which were not available for comment for this article.

The tenancy contract is in the last five years, the fare is fixed during that time, but the region of the middle Madrid has seen the cost of housing in recent years.

“For another such house (in this area), I have to pay double or more that I am paying now,” says Blanca says. “It is not viable.”

He and his neighbors are one of the millions of Spains, who are suffering from the consequences of a housing crisis due to spiralting the costs of rent.

While the salary has increased by about 20% in the last decade, the average fare in Spain has doubled during the same period. According to the data provided by the property portal idealista, there has been an 11% increase alone compared to the previous year, and Housing has become the biggest concern of spanienges.

It is also causing anger, Spanieng has demanded action from the authorities to take the streets on the streets to make the housing more economical. On Saturday, on 5 April, thousands of people protested in Madrid and dozens of other cities.

A report by Spain’s Central Bank found that now about 40% of the families who are now hired spend more than 40% of their income at their housing.

“There is a huge imbalance between the current problem supply and demand,” says Juan Villain of Idialista. “The demand is very good, the economy is growing very much, but the supply is declining very fast.”

Mr. Villain provides an example of Barcelona, ​​where the increase in fares has become notorious. While nine families were competing to rent each property in the city five years ago, this number has increased to 54. The cost of rent has increased by 60%during that time, he said.

“We need to make more qualities,” is called Mr. Villain. “And from the rent, we need to prepare more people to hire their properties, or are ready to buy properties, re -prepare them and put them on the rental market.”

The central government has described the situation as a “social emergency” and agrees that the lack of supply is increasing the crisis. Last year, the Ministry of Housing estimated that the country needs 600,000 and one million new homes in the next four years to meet the demand.

The need for more housing has been pushed into part from the arrival of migrants who have joined the workforce and are helping to run Spain’s economic growth. The ministry also pointed to the lack of social housing, which is 3.4%of the total supply, the lowest in Europe.

In 2007, over 600,000 houses were built in Spain, at the height of a property-ownership bubbles. But high building costs, lack of available land and lack of manpower have been all factors in restricting construction in all recent years, with 2024 given less than 100,000 houses.

The government has taken measures to encourage construction, affecting the land for the construction of affordable houses, trying to ensure that the public house does not end in the private market, which has been a problem in the past.

But the Samajwadi Prime Minister, Pedro Sanches, has expressed a desire to interfere in the market to bring the rent prices under control.

In a recent event to mark the opening of 218 low-mirated flats in the southern city of Sevile, he announced that Spaniards “want us to work, they want the housing market that the housing market is operated according to social justice, according to the law of the forest, they want to ensure that they are not liking whatever they are”.

The central government and several local administration have identified short -term tourist houses as part of the problem. Last year, many cities on the Canary Islands, Belleric Islands and Mainlands saw protests by local people against the increase in the number of tourists, the cost of the main complaint with their impact on rent was the cost.

Many city halls have responded by announcing a plan to grant a grant to tourism-flat permits, while Barcelona is moving forward, canceling all 10,000 either registered short-term apartment licenses by 2028.

The Santhese government has also pushed through a housing law of Parliament, including a cap on rent in the so-called “high-stores” areas where prices are climbing out of control. Political resistance means that the law is still being implemented in the northern regions of the country, Navre and Catalonia, and its success is open to debate.

Socialist-led regional and central governments have indicated a decline of 3.7% in the cost of fare in the “high-stool” areas of Catalonia as the cap was seen 6.4% with Barcelona, ​​an introduction, a year ago.

However, critics have warned that the rent hat has uprooted the owners and thousands of properties have been withdrawn from the market.

“On the supply side, the problem is that all measures taken by the local or national governments are going against the landlords,” says Mr. Villain. “Even those who were making new properties build-to-rant are selling their properties because they do not want to go to the rented market.”

Another initiative proposed by the Central Government that has shaken the debate is a tax of up to 100% on assets purchased by non-residents from outside the European Union, on the basis that such houses are often inhabited. This is a remedy, if rolled out, the British will greatly affect buyers.

Orthodox protests have accused the government of being very heavy with their perspectives. However, as public anger makes this issue, there are many other people who want to function very clearly to the leaders of the country.

Gonzalo Anlvarez, an organization of Syndicateo de Inquelinas e Inqualinos, which campaigns for the rights of tenants, agrees that the lack of available houses is a problem, but insisting that the building does not have more answers.

“Lack of housing is lacking because houses are being kidnapped – on one side at the tourist flats, and on the other side there are all empty flats related to vulture funds and banks,” they say. “So there is no need to build more, it is not necessary. But the accommodation we have kidnapped.”

Their organization wants the government to implement a huge compulsory reduction in fares on owners and is threatening to organize a nationwide strike by the tenants who will refuse the participants to pay their rent.

“(Central and local) governments are not setting any limits,” Mr. Valvarez says. “So who is going? We have to do this.”