Image Credit: Barcex via Wikimedia Commons
On Saturday the 19th of September tens of thousands of Madrileños took to the streets to demand solutions and accountability for the national housing crisis. The Wednesday prior, police ripped open María del Carmen Abascal’s front door and evicted her from the apartment she had called home for the last seventy years. The 87- year- old has since passed away and become a symbol for Spain’s housing crisis. Londoners are similarly suffering from ever increasing rents, with many having to go to the bank of mum and dad for financial help. Those without such support are forced into squalid, small flatshares with long commutes. It is imperative that we address this housing epidemic for both young Madrileños and Londoners.
Government statistics bring to light the obstacles young people face in accessing housing as 44.3% of Spaniards aged 26-34 are living with parents. Half of this group say they cannot afford to rent or buy a home. This is partly due to the shortfall of houses and exorbitantly high rents, while wages continue to flounder. The result is a generation whose transition into adulthood is being delayed by circumstances beyond their control. These young people are not necessarily unemployed or unwilling to leave home, many simply cannot afford to do so, particularly in Spain’s largest cities. When earning a living is no longer enough to secure a place of your own, independence becomes a privilege rather than a natural next step.
Yet the picture is not uniform across Spain. In some smaller towns and villages rents are lower, and the quality of life is arguably higher, which has enticed some city dwellers to pack up and move. To illustrate this contrast, when I was a student living in Cádiz, I rented a one-bedroom flat equipped with its own kitchen and balcony for 600 euros per month. By comparison, student shared living costs in Madrid and Barcelona can exceed 700 euros per month. This partly explains why many university students are deciding to stay within their home region rather than moving to the big city, and thus narrowing their academic and future employment opportunities. Interestingly, young families, digital nomads and immigrants (mostly Latin-American) continue to flock to “España Vacía” the largely unpopulated rural areas of Spain in search of a more affordable way of life, as life in the capital becomes untenable.
The Spanish government continues to provide rent-controlled flats and council-housing, as well as loan or “ayudas” to subsidise living costs for families and university students, but these measures are simply not enough to alleviate the financial burden on the poorest. Not while the cost of basic goods has increased by 5% in the past year, and national rents in Spain reached a 6.8% year on year increase. The government must divert more public funds to families in precarious housing circumstances, and use policy to prevent locals being priced out of the housing market. I call on local governments to restrict the conversion of residential homes into tourist lets in areas already experiencing severe housing pressure, particularly in cities such as Barcelona, where the proliferation of short-term rentals has intensified competition for housing. Fortunately, Barcelona has taken steps to tackle the problem. In 2024, the city announced plans to phase out more than 10,000 licensed tourist apartments by 2028, potentially returning thousands of properties to the residential market and easing pressure on local renters.
What is certain are the variety of factors that have narrowed young people’s prospects: soaring rents and intense competition for space, jobs and university places. It is not valuable to blame one sole issue for the narrowing of youth opportunities. It is a natural consequence of an increasingly urbanised Spain.