The demonstrators gather in Spain to protest against the housing crisis | News

The demonstrators returned to the street angry with high costs of housing without relief in sight.

Hundreds of thousands of people have worked in Spain cities to protest against the outbreak of rents and the lack of affordable houses in a country that benefits from the fastest economic growth in Europe and however suffers from a shortage of housing exacerbated by a tourist boom.

The housing crisis across Europe has particularly strongly reached Spain, where there is a strong tradition of property and few public housing for rent.

The Spanish Government Government of Center-Gauche had difficulty finding a balance between attracting tourists and keeping affordable rents for average citizens, because short-term rentals have multiplied in large cities and coastal destinations.

“No matter who governs, we have to defend the rights of housing,” shouted activists on Saturday while shaking keychain in Madrid, where tens of thousands of demonstrators crossed the center of the capital, according to the local tenant union.

The average Spanish rents have doubled and housing prices have inflated by 44% over the past decade, data from the Idealista property website has shown, far exceeding wage growth.

Meanwhile, the supply of rentals has halved from the Pandemic 2020.

Tourist influx

Spain does not have public housing in which other European nations have invested in depicting tenants in difficulty in a market that prices.

Spain is near the end of the organization for countries of economic cooperation and development, with public housing to rent representing less than 2% of all available accommodation.

The OECD average is 7%. In France, it is 14%, the United Kingdom is 16%and the Netherlands are 34%.

“They all give us kicks to make tourism apartments,” the Reuters news agency in Margarita Aizpuru told a 65 -year -old resident of the popular Lavapies district.

Nearly 100 families living in its block were informed by the owners of the building that their rental contracts would not be renewed, she said.

The associations and experts of the owners claim that current regulations discourage long -term rentals, and the owners find that rental to tourists or foreigners for days or a few months is more profitable and safer.

Spain received a record of 94 million tourists in 2024, making it the second most visited country in the world.

According to official data, only around 120,000 new houses are built in Spain each year – a sixth in the level before the 2008 financial crisis, aggravating the already acute supply shortage.