Spain is facing a wave of protests at lack of affordable housing as the government admits that it is struggling to manage the problem.
Last weekend tens of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets of Madrid and other cities to demand tighter controls to keep spiralling rental costs down. Further protests are organised for the coming weeks and in recent days a group of activists have been sleeping in tents in the Mediterranean city of Valencia in order to draw attention to the issue.
“The Spanish government is aware of the seriousness of the problem,” housing minister Isabel Rodríguez told Congress, describing the situation as a “social emergency”.
Ms Rodríguez said the Socialist-led coalition government plans to safeguard public housing to ensure it does not end up being sold at market price, as has happened previously. However, she played down hopes of a quick solution.
“There are no magic wands but nor should we put spokes in the wheel because any measures are not going to take immediate effect,” she said.
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Ahead of the parliamentary session, Íñigo Errejón, of Sumar, the junior partner in the coalition, warned: “I hope the housing minister, before coming to Congress, put her head out into the street, listened outside her window to the clamour that there is in Spain, that is being expressed in growing street protests.”
Those protesting want rental caps to be introduced wherever costs have risen sharply, particularly in city centres. They also want to introduce limits on tourism, which they blame for pushing rentals up through short-term-stay platforms such as Airbnb.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez responded to last weekend’s protests by announcing that €200 million would be made available to help young people with rental costs.
A recent report by Spain’s central bank found that nearly 40 per cent of families who rent spend more than 40 per cent of their income on their accommodation. It also found that nearly half of families who rent at market price are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
The bank warned that such difficulties in paying rent “can lead to adverse economic and social effects which justify public intervention”.
Around two dozen tents have been set up in a square central Valencia since the weekend, in a protest with echoes of the 2011 indignados movement that swept Spain. So far, the local authorities have not tried to shift the activists.
Valencia city hall and the government of the surrounding region, both of which are run by the conservative Popular Party (PP), and which took office in 2023, have expressed sympathy with the protesters.
“They are right,” said Carlos Mazón, president of Valencia, who said the region had suffered a “housing collapse” over recent years.
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