Blanca Castro puts on a builder’s helmet before opening the door to her kitchen. Inside it, the ceiling has a large hole that is dripping water and it looks as if it could collapse at any moment.
Because the kitchen is unusable, Blanca has to wash her dishes in the bathtub, and she has improvised a cooking area with a gas camping stove in a corner of her living room.
Many of her fellow tenants in this apartment block near Madrid’s Atocha railway station have similar problems. They say the company that owns the building has stopped responding to requests for basic maintenance in recent months, since informing them that it will not renew their rental contracts.
“The current rental bubble is encouraging a lot of big owners to do what they are doing here,” says Blanca. “Which is to get rid of the current tenants who have been here a long time, in order to have short-term tourist flats, or simply to hike up the rent.”
Blanca and her fellow tenants have vowed to stay in the building despite what they see as efforts to push them out by the owners, who were not available for comment for this article.
The tenancy contracts last five years, during which time rent is fixed, but this area of central Madrid has seen housing costs soar in recent years.
“For another home like this [in this area], I’d have to pay double or more what I’m paying now,” says Blanca. “It’s not viable.”
She and her neighbours are among millions of Spaniards who are suffering the consequences of a housing crisis caused by spiralling rental costs.
While salaries have increased by around 20% over the past decade, the average rental in Spain has doubled during the same period. There has been an 11% increase over the last year alone, according to figures provided by property portal Idealista, and housing has become Spaniards’ biggest worry.
It’s also generating anger, with Spaniards taking to the streets to demand action from the authorities to make housing more affordable. On Saturday, 5 April thousands of people protested in Madrid and dozens of other cities.
A report by Spain’s central bank found that nearly 40% of families who rent now spend more than 40% of their income on their accommodation.
“The current problem is a huge imbalance between supply and demand,” says Juan Villén, of Idealista. “Demand is very good, the economy is growing a lot, but supply is dwindling very fast.”
Mr Villén offers the example of Barcelona, where rental increases have become notorious. Whereas nine families were competing to rent each property in the city five years ago, that number has risen to 54. Rental costs during that time have increased by 60%, he adds.
“We need to build more properties,” says Mr Villén. “And on the rental side we need more people willing to rent their properties, or willing to buy properties, refurbish them and put them on the rental market.”
The central government has described the situation as “a social emergency” and agrees that a lack of supply is driving the crisis. Last year, the Housing Ministry estimated that the country needs between 600,000 and one million new homes over the next four years in order to meet demand.
This need for more housing has been pushed up in part by the arrival of immigrants who have joined the workforce and are helping drive Spain’s economic growth. The ministry also pointed to a lack of social housing, which at 3.4% of total supply, is among the lowest in Europe.
In 2007, at the height of a property-ownership bubble, more than 600,000 homes were built in Spain. But high building costs, lack of available land and a shortage of manpower have all been factors in restricting construction in recent years, with just under 100,000 homes completed in 2024.
The government has taken measures to incentivise construction, apportioning land for the building of affordable homes, while trying to ensure that public housing does not end up in the private market, which has been a problem in the past.
(BBC)
