Tens of thousands of people protested across around forty cities in Spain on Saturday, denouncing the increasingly severe housing shortage in the country. Participants demanded an end to real estate investor speculation.
Actions in Madrid, Barcelona, and Palma de Majorca were organised by tenant collectives and supported by unions.
The housing shortage is driving up rent prices, forcing people to spend a growing portion of their income on housing. For some, this can be as much as 50%. Consultancy firm Atlas estimates that around 3.5 million additional homes are needed to achieve an affordable rent-to-income ratio of around 30%.
However, the reality seems to be heading in the opposite direction. Last year, only 100,000 new properties were added to the market while the number of households increased by 330,000, according to data from the national statistics agency cited by the Cadena Ser television channel.
The organisers of Saturday’s protests call for an end to real estate speculation, an increase in social housing, and a stop to converting housing spaces into vacation parks. Some speakers even urged people to squat in secondary residences and withhold rent payments.
The construction sector blames excessive bureaucracy, a lack of building land, and sharply rising construction costs for the crisis. They predict the situation will only improve in the long term.
Mass tourism exacerbates the problem, especially in prime destinations like Majorca, Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga, and Madrid. The rising number of foreign tourists keeps breaking records in Spain, but people with low incomes struggle to afford housing due to skyrocketing property prices.