Guy Hedgecoe
Business Reporter
BBC
Blanca Castro, who rents an apartment in central Madrid, says she’s been kicked out by the landlord
Blanca Castro puts on the builder helmet before opening the door to the kitchen. Inside it is a large hole in the ceiling with water dripping down, which appears to be possible to collapse at any time.
The kitchen is not available, so Blanca had to wash the food in the bathtub and improvised the cooking area with a gas camp stove in the corner of the living room.
Many of her fellow tenants in this apartment block near Madrid’s Atucha railway station have similar issues. They say the company that owns the building has stopped responding to basic maintenance requests in recent months to let them know they won’t renew their rental agreement.
“Current rental bubbles encourage many big owners to do what they’re doing here,” says Blanca. “This is to remove current tenants who have been here for a long time, either to have a short-term tourist flat or simply hike the rent.”
Blanca and her fellow tenants vowed to stay in the building despite what is seen as an effort to drive them out by the owners who could not comment on this article.
Tenant contracts have been in the past five years, during which rents have been fixed, but housing costs have skyrocketed in this area of central Madrid in recent years.
“For another house like this [in this area]I have to pay more than twice what I’m paying right now,” says Blanca. “That’s not feasible.”
She and her neighbors are among the millions of Spaniards suffering from the consequences of the housing crisis caused by a swirl of rental costs.
Salaries have increased by around 20% over the past decade, but average Spanish rentals have doubled over the same period. According to figures provided by Property Portal Idealista, there was an 11% increase last year alone, making homes the biggest concern for Spaniards.
They’re also creating rage as Spaniards take them on the streets and demand that authorities take action to make the home more affordable. Thousands are expected to protest in Madrid and dozens of other cities on Saturday, April 5th.
Blanca Castro says the owner of her apartment building has stopped maintenance work
A report by the Spanish Central Bank found that nearly 40% of rental families spend more than 40% of their income on accommodation.
“The current problem is a huge imbalance between supply and demand,” says idealist Juan Villen. “Demand is in very good condition and the economy is growing very well, but supply is declining very quickly.”
Mr. Virne offers an example of Barcelona, where the increase in rentals is notorious. Five years ago, nine families competed to rent each property in the city, but that number increased to 54. Rental costs increased by 60% during that period.
“We need to build more properties,” Villén says. “And on the rental side, more people need people willing to rent their property, buy them, renovate them, or put them in the rental market.”
The central government describes the situation as a “social emergency” and agrees that supply shortages are driving the crisis. Last year, the Ministry of Housing estimated that it would need between 600,000 and 1 million new homes over the next four years to meet demand.
The need for more housing is partially boosted by the arrival of migrants who join the workforce and are driving Spain’s economic growth. The ministry also noted that the shortage of social housing, which is 3.4% of total supply, is the lowest in Europe.
In 2007, at the height of the real estate ownership bubble, over 600,000 homes were built in Spain. However, the cost of high buildings, a lack of available land and a shortage of personnel have been a factor in recent years, with just under 100,000 homes being completed in 2024.
While the government is encouraging construction and taking steps to allocate land for the construction of affordable homes, it is trying to ensure that public housing doesn’t end up in the private market, which has been a problem in the past.
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Spanish government says new homes are needed to keep up with demand
However, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also expressed his willingness to intervene in the market to control rental prices.
At a recent event commemorating the opening of 218 low-rent flats in the southern city of Seville, he declared that the Spaniards “want us to act. They declared they wanted to operate the housing market in accordance with the laws of social justice, not jungle laws.
The central government and many local governments have identified short-term tourist accommodations as part of the issue. Last year, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and several cities on the mainland received major complaints as locals were in a rush to the number of tourists and was affected by rentals.
While Barcelona went further, several city halls responded by announcing plans to limit the granting of tourists’ permits.
The Sanchez government has also pushed the Housing Act into Parliament. The Housing Act includes rental caps for so-called “high tension” areas where prices are out of control. Political resistance means that the law is only implemented in the northern regions of Basque countries, Navarras and Catalonia, and its success is open to debate.
Socialist-led regions and central governments point out that since the introduction of CAP a year ago, rental costs have fallen by 3.7% and Barcelona has fallen by 6.4% in Catalonia’s “high tension” regions.
However, critics warn that rental caps have scared the owners and have withdrawn thousands of properties from the market.
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This year, protests were held in Spain, protests against high rental prices and home evictions
“On the supply side, the problem is that all measures taken by local or central governments are opposed to the landlord,” Wiln said. “Even people who were doing new Build Torring properties are selling real estate because they don’t want to enter the rental market.”
Another initiative proposed by the central government that sparked the controversy is a tax of up to 100% on property purchased by non-residents from outside the EU, because such homes are often rarely inhabited. This is a measure that, if deployed, has a significant impact on UK buyers.
Conservative opposition accused the government of being too heavy on its approach. But there are many others who want the nation’s leaders to act more vigorously as public rage is built around this issue.
Gonzalo Alvarez of Sindicato de Inquilinas E Inquilinos, an organization that campaigns for tenant rights, agrees that the lack of available homes is the problem, but argues that more construction is not the answer.
“There’s a shortage of housing because the houses are hijacked. On the one hand, there’s a tourist flat, and on the other hand, there’s all empty flats belonging to vulture funds and banks,” he says. “So there’s no need to build any more. That’s not necessary. But the homes we have are hijacked.”
His organization hopes the government will impose significant forced cuts on owners, and threatens to adjust a national strike by tenants as participants see them refuse to pay rent.
” [central and local] The government has not set restrictions,” says Alvarez. We have to do that. ”
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