Spain grapples with a housing crisis fueled by tourism and investment speculation, displacing residents and traditional businesses. The government proposes solutions including social housing construction, incentives for affordable rentals, and stricter regulations for tourist flats.
Now it has become a parody of itself, a place from which the local population has been exiled in the interests of tourism and maturing investments. Doorways have sprouted combination key safes, a telltale sign of an apartment given over to tourist lets. A 100-year-old apothecary and shirtmaker that stood on La Rambla for two centuries have been replaced by shops selling flamenco dolls and ceramic bulls.
He said Spain had lacked a state housing policy for almost a decade before he came to power in 2018, and accused his PP predecessor of gambling instead on “an ideological, neoliberal policy that had disastrous social and economical consequences”., announced the transfer of 3,300 homes and 2m sq metres of land to a newly created public company to construct “thousands and thousands and thousands” of affordable social housing units for young people and families.
The past 12 months have pushed the issue of housing to the top of the political agenda. Concerns about overtourism – driven largely by its distorting effect on the housing market – “Until pretty recently, all this has mainly affected vulnerable social classes, but now it’s affecting the working class and the middle class,” said Martí. “In political terms, that’s more potential voters who are being affected – middle class people realising they won’t be able to buy a flat and that renting is really hard, and people not leaving home in Spain until they reach an average age of about 31.
Claudio Milano, a researcher at the University of Barcelona’s social anthropology department and an expert on overtourism, said offering tax breaks to those who rent out their flats at affordable rates was not enough when there were On the plus side, he said, both parties shared the same fundamental analysis: that Spain has a basic lack of housing.“One party is betting a little more on state intervention, and the other is betting a bit more on the market, as you would expect a party on the left and a party on the right to do,” said Simón. “But the diagnosis is relatively similar.”
HOUSING CRISIS TOURISM SPAIN SOCIAL HOUSING REGULATION INVESTMENTS
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