Spain: Thousands Protested in Barcelona About Expensive Rents · Global Voices

Thousands of people protested on Saturday (23.11.2024) in , with a request to reduce the roof. “Investors come and play with the apartments as if we were Monopoly,” said a representative of the tenant union. The difficulties encountered in finding accommodation in Spain’s second largest city, brought thousands of Barcelonans to the streets, responding to the call of associations and tenant associations. Protesters, who had the support of parties from the Left and the CCOO and UGT unions, gathered late Saturday afternoon in downtown Barcelona. At the top of the march, a huge banner wrote the slogan “Recent lodging for all”. “Today begins a new political cycle for the residence,” Carme Arkarathos, the spokesman for the Catalan tenants union, who participated in organizing the mobilisation, told reporters. “It is not possible that investors come to our cities and play with apartments like we are Monopoly. Today, we came to say that this is over,” he said, addressing mainly “the incomers who steal half our salary.” Protesters are asking that rents be reduced by 50%, that tenants be allowed to sign contracts for indefinite rental of residence and that ‘profit’ housing sales be prohibited. Otherwise, they threaten to go on to “perpetual rents”. A similar demonstration was organized on 13 October in Madrid. According to the online real estate portal “Idealista”, the price of rents per square metre increased by 82% over the last decade, while the average salary was only 17% , based on figures from the National Institute for Statistics (INE). Due to the situation, the government passed in early 2023 a law providing that construction of social housing will increase and sanctions will be imposed on owners who leave their apartments vacant. However, this law failed to stop the increase in rents, especially in large cities.