In more than 40 locations across the country, tenants unions and neighbourhood assemblies carried out protest actions last weekend
~ Rob Latchford ~
Spain’s first national housing march was organised over the weekend, thanks to the collaborative work of dozens of pro-housing organisations and unions. Demonstrators called for a halving of rents, permanent tenancy contracts, the recovery of all vacant tourist and seasonal rental properties, and the dismantling of companies that carry out evictions.
In Madrid, more than 100,000 people gathered from noon, mostly wearing orange t-shirts, and marched from Atocha along the Paseo del Prado to the outskirts of the Plaza de España. Protesters denounced both the central and regional governments for failing to guarantee universal access to decent housing.
“The general upward trend in rents in recent years means that anyone who wants to rent a house needs to spend more than 50% of their salary on rent”, Darío from the Carabanchel housing union told El Salto newspaper. “This is especially affecting young people whose jobs are characterised by precariousness”, he emphasised.
The Madrid Tenants’ Union shares this view: “most of us in the union, who are young and from Madrid, live with our parents because we can’t become independent”, said members Juan and Lucía. “It’s impossible, and this also has consequences for our personal, emotional, and relational development”. In total, almost 1,400,000 households in Spain currently spend more than 30% of their income on monthly rent payments.
The protesters demanded measures to curb “parasitic” real estate speculation practices as well as the complete closure of tourist and seasonal apartments. According to official data, between August 2023 and 2024 the number of vacation rentals in Spain increased by 16.6%, a phenomenon that has now also spread to peripheral and working-class towns. Although a modification to the Horizontal Property Law, requiring the express approval of 60% of residents to establish vacation rentals, came into effect this Thursday, the tenants insist this regulation is ineffective against vulture funds who buy entire blocks of flats.
The protest was joined by hundreds of allied organisations and platforms including the Street Vendors’ Union, Ecologists in Action, and the Boycott Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) campaign for Palestinian liberation.
“A structural problem of capitalism”
At the same time as the demonstration was starting out in Madrid several thousand protesters gathered in Donostia (San Sebastian) in the Basque Country. Marching from the old urban centre, they chanted slogans such as “No to the housing business” and “Stop homelessness” as they passed City Hall and marched along the avenue. According to the Socialist Housing Union of Euskal Herria, the solution to the housing problem “will not come from public financing of the real estate business, but from an organised struggle for effective improvements” and a “reduction in real estate sector profits”.
The union pointed out that the housing crisis is affecting the working class, while “everything is going well for business owners and tenants”. It also warned about the impact of the housing problem on groups such as “young workers, who cannot emancipate themselves” and “racialised and migrant people, who struggle with poverty and housing racism”.
The solution, according to the union, “is no middle ground; either profits are reduced, or our living conditions will not improve”. This means ending the structural problem of capitalism and building a new society where “housing is not a commodity and where resources are planned according to social needs”.
Major deminstrations also took place in Galicia, Andalusia and Valencia.
In Barcelona, thousands of people (12,000 according to the Municipal Police and 100,000 according to the organisers) gathered to demand the right to decent housing under the slogan “Let’s lower rents, let’s end the housing business”.
The housing situation in Catalonia remains critical. According to data from the Catalan Institute of Land, the average rent in Barcelona in 2025 will be €1,117 per month, and many tenants spend more than half their income on rent.
Top image: Madrid. Photo: David F. Sabadell
