Spain is dealing with “social emergency” housing as rents double

Blanka Castro puts the builder's helmet before opening the door to her kitchen. Inside it, the ceiling has a large opening that drips water and looks as if it can collapse at any moment.

Because the kitchen is unusable, Blanca should wash its plates in the bathtub and it improvises a cooking area with a gas camping stove in the corner of its living room.

Many of her fellow tenants in this apartment block near the Madrid Atocha Railway Station have similar problems. They say that the company that owns the building has stopped responding to demands for basic maintenance in recent months as it informs them that it will not renew their lease.

“The current rental balloon encourages many large owners to do what they do here,” says Blanca. “What is to get rid of current tenants who have been here for a long time to have short -term tourist apartments or just increase the rent.”

Blanca and her colleagues tenants swore to stay in the building, though they see as an effort to push them out of owners who were not available for comment on this article.

The rental contracts in the last five years, during which the rent has been set, but this area of ​​Central Madrid has been observed to increase housing costs in recent years.

“For another home like this (in this area) I will have to pay double or more what I am paying now,” says Blanca. “Not viable.”

She and her neighbors are among millions of Spaniards who suffer from the consequences of a residential crisis caused by a lease spiral.

As salaries have increased by about 20% over the last decade, the average rent in Spain has doubled during the same period. There is an increase of 11% in the last year only, according to the data provided by the Porty Portal Idealista, and the homes have become the most concerned of the Spaniards.

In addition, he generates anger, with the Spaniards taking the street to demand actions from the authorities to make the homes more accessible. On Saturday, April 5, thousands of people are expected to protest in Madrid and dozens of other cities.

A report from the Central Bank of Spain has found that nearly 40% of the families they hire are now spending more than 40% of their accommodation income.

“The current problem is a huge imbalance between supply and supply,” says Juan Will, from Idealista. “The demand is very good, the economy is growing a lot, but supply is reducing very quickly.”

Villén offers the example of Barcelona, ​​where the increase in rents have become notorious. As nine families competed to rent every property in the city five years ago, this number increased to 54. The cost of renting during this time increased by 60%, he adds.

“We have to build more properties,” says G -n Vil. “And on the part of hiring, we need more people who want to rent their properties or wish to buy properties, renovate them and put them in the rental market.”

The central government described the situation as a “social emergency” and agrees that the lack of delivery leads to the crisis. Last year, the housing ministry estimated that the country needed 600,000 and one million new homes in the next four years to meet the demand.

This need for more homes is partly pushed by the arrival of immigrants who have joined the labor force and help to stimulate Spain's economic growth. The ministry also pointed out the lack of social housing, which, with 3.4% of total offering, is among the lowest in Europe.

In 2007, over 600,000 homes were built in the midst of the property ownership balloon. But the high cost of construction, the lack of available land and the shortage of labor are all factors for limiting construction in recent years, with just under 100,000 homes being completed in 2024.

The government has taken measures to stimulate construction by distributing land to build homes at affordable prices, while trying to ensure that public housing is not in the private market, which has been a problem in the past.

But the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also expressed his desire to intervene in the market to control the lease prices.

At a recent event to mark the opening of 218 low rental apartments in the southern city of Seville, he said that the Spaniards “want us to act, they want the housing market according to the law of reason, for social justice, not the Jungle Law;

The central government and a number of local administrations have identified short -term tourist accommodation as part of the problem. Last year, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and several cities in the continental part saw protests by locals against the growing tourist numbers as their impact on the cost of renting the main complaint.

Several mayoralties have responded by announcing plans to limit the provision of tourist flat permits, while Barcelona goes further by canceling the licenses of all 10,000 or more registered short-term apartments by 2028.

The Sanchez government also passed through parliament of housing law, which includes a rents restriction in so -called high voltage areas, where prices go beyond control. Political resistance meant that so far the legislation has been applied only in the northern regions of the Basque, Navari and Catalonia country, and its success is open to debate.

The regional and central governments, led by socialists, pointed out a 3.7% decline in rental costs in Catalonia's High Voltage areas after the caption of the cap a year ago, with Barcelona observing a reduction of 6.4%.

Critics, however, warn that the rent cap has scared the owners and caused thousands of properties to be withdrawn from the market.

“On the part of the supply, the problem is that all measures taken by local or national governments are going against the landlords,” says G -N -Willene. “Even the people who were making new properties sell their properties because they do not want to enter the rental market.”

Another initiative proposed by the central government, which has caused debate, is up to 100% tax on property purchased from non -residents outside the EU, on the grounds that such homes are often inhabited. This is a measure that, if unfolded, would greatly affect British buyers.

The conservative opposition has accused the government of being too difficult with its approach. However, since public anger builds on this issue, there are many others who would like the country's leaders to act much more.

Gonzalo álvarez by Sindicato de Inquilinas is Inquilinos, an organization that tenant rights campaigns agree that the shortage of available homes is a problem, but insists that building no longer the answer.

“There is no home as homes are abducted – on the one hand, tourist apartments, and on the other, all empty apartments belonging to the funds of vultures and banks,” he says. “So you don't need to build more, it's not necessary. But the home we are abducted.”

His organization wants the government to impose drastic mandatory reductions in the rent of the owners and threatens to organize a national strike by tenants who will see the participants refuse to pay their rent.

“(Central and local) governments do not define any restrictions,” says G -n Alvarez. “So, who's going to? We'll have to do it.”