Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets today across 40 cities in Spain to protest against skyrocketing rents and the lack of affordable housing. This comes despite Spain enjoying the fastest economic growth in Europe — a paradox fueled further by a booming tourism industry.
Spain’s center-left government is struggling to balance attracting tourists and migrants to fill labor gaps while keeping rents affordable for locals. The surge in short-term tourist rentals has worsened the housing shortage in major cities and coastal destinations.
“Regardless of who’s in power, we must defend housing rights,” chanted protesters in Madrid, where more than 150,000 people marched through the city center, according to the local tenants’ union.
Over the past decade, average rents in Spain have doubled and home prices have surged by 44%, significantly outpacing wage growth, according to data from the real estate website Idealista. Meanwhile, the supply of rental housing has halved since the 2020 pandemic.
“They’re throwing all of us out to build tourist apartments,” said Margarita Aizpourou, a 65-year-old resident of the popular Lavapiés neighborhood. In her building alone, landlords told around 100 families their leases would not be renewed.
Homeowners’ associations and experts argue that existing regulations discourage long-term rentals. As a result, landlords increasingly favor short-term leases to tourists or foreign visitors, which are seen as more profitable and less risky.
Spain welcomed a record 94 million tourists in 2024, becoming the second most-visited country in the world. At the same time, an influx of thousands of migrants has pushed the housing deficit to around 500,000 homes, according to the Bank of Spain.
Official figures show that only about 120,000 new homes are built annually in Spain — just one-sixth of the levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis — deepening the housing crisis even further.
Wendy Davila, 26, stressed that the problem extends beyond city centers, with rental prices surging “everywhere.”
“You can’t live in Madrid sharing an apartment with four other people,” she said.
