Huge protests have been planned to take place across Spain on April 5 over soaring housing and rental prices, with locals branding the current housing situation in the country as ‘unsustainable’
Huge protests have been scheduled across Spain, as locals have called out the current state of housing in Spain as ‘unsustainable’.
Housing activists have announced they will demonstrate against ‘exorbitant’ housing prices on April 5, across Barcelona and other Spanish cities. Several Tenants’ Unions across the country are calling for a new demonstration, where protesters will “take to the streets” on Saturday, April 5, to demand “rent prices to be lowered” and to “stop speculating with the housing market”.
The protest is due to take place at 6pm, at Place Espanya in Barcelona, as well as in cities across the country and will use the slogan “Let’s reduce rent prices and end the housing business”. The Tenant’s Union in Barcelona hopes to welcome “thousands of people” from different parts of Catalonia, according to Catalan News.
Organisers of the demonstration claim that the “exorbitant” rental prices are the “first cause of impoverishment of the working class and a stop to access housing”. They are calling for a 50 per cent reduction as current prices are “unsustainable and are drowning millions of people”.
Among other demands, the protesters are pushing for long-term rent contracts so that people can “build a life”. They would also like to recover any empty properties, including tourist accommodation, and end “speculative buying [as] housing cannot be an investment”.
In November of last year, the Tenant’s Union held a march in Barcelona that welcomed around 22,000 people, according to local police. However, organisers claim that over 170,000 people actually attended. The ongoing housing issue in Spain has led to many protests in recent months and also saw Barcelona announce a ban on Airbnb properties from 2027.
Just this week, over 100 squatters have taken over a hotel in the BelleVue Resort in Puerto de Alcudia, Majorca, with many claiming it is due to the increasing rental prices on the Canary Islands that they moved into the empty hotel apartments. Other buildings in the resort have suffered this issue for years, including the Hotel Delfín Azul.
Also this week, the commercial director of Condor Airlines, Christian Lesjak, issued a warning to the Canary Island’s that “if politicians are not careful, they will put the tourism in the Canary Islands at risk”. The aviation boss’ comments follow growing concerns over the impact of mass tourism in the archipelago, where there has regularly been protests on the streets demanding for stricter regulations, over the past year.
Jet2’s CEO Steve Heapy also recently said that the Canary Islands are playing a “dangerous game” when it comes to tourism policies. He warned that tourists are being put of by the protests that have been occurring on the islands, and added that they would choose destinations elsewhere, such as Turkey, Greece and Morocco, for their future holidays instead.
