Thousands of people demonstrate this Saturday afternoon in Barcelona to protest against the price of rents and defend the right to housing. With the slogan “It’s over! Let’s lower the rents”, called by him and with the support of the large unions and neighborhood entities (up to 4,000 associations, according to the organization), protesters have arrived in the Catalan capital from all over Catalonia, proof that it has been surpassed by the large cities and spreads across the territory. The spokesperson for the Tenants Union, Carme Arcarazo, has predicted that the protest will be “historic and will mark a turning point.” “Enough of allocating half of our salaries to paying for housing, enough of making money every time our contract runs out, it’s over with rentiers getting richer and us getting poorer.” “And for politicians,” he warned, “enough excuses about powers, because there is a party that governs everything, which is called a socialist party.”
Among the 30 organized columns of the march, neighborhoods of Barcelona and its surroundings, residents of towns in the Pyrenees where second homes account for up to 90% of the housing, coastal municipalities of the Costa Daurada or Brava where workers in the tourism sector do not have where to live, and capitals such as Tarragona or Girona and surrounding cities (Reus or Salt), where phenomena typical of large cities with high vulnerability rates coexist.
: halving the price of rents, indefinite contracts, recovering empty apartments, tourist apartments and seasonal rentals for neighbors and prohibiting apartments that are not for living. On the horizon, the organizers point to one and remember that since 2018 there are already buildings owned by large holders or multi-owners who have partially stopped paying illegal increases or that they consider abusive. The difference is recorded in court. Elected officials from the Commons, ERC and the CUP have participated in the protest.
The Barcelona protest comes after mobilizations in Malaga or Seville. And in the domestic sphere, preceded by announcements on housing and to contain mass tourism by the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council that the entities consider to be late and insufficient. although it does not have a sanctioning regime or inspections to guarantee its application. Furthermore, to avoid it, the owners have massively diverted the offer to monthly rentals.
Barcelona has been in Spain for decades: tourist apartments burst in massively here, global capital and investment funds landed, but movements for the right to housing such as the PAH, the Assembly of Neighborhoods for the decrease in tourism, also emerged here ( ABDT) or the Tenants’ Union. And it was where the administrations, partly pushed by activists, saw what was coming and. Despite everything, the market is ahead (rooms are now being added at exorbitant prices) and the rental price has long exceeded the minimum wage. When the rent is also the main one, all the actors agree.
Some data to illustrate the context of the protest. In Barcelona, living alone is practically impossible. Almost half of the rental apartments in Barcelona are owned by owners who have more than five homes. And the ABDT has estimated that, together, the city’s legal and illegal tourist offer adds up to 190,000 beds. Meanwhile, the Catalan capital is about to buy apartments worth more than 500,000 euros, doubling those that have been granted in Madrid or Malaga. In Catalonia, rental prices have risen three times more than family incomes in the last 20 years.
Among the protesters there was no shortage of Barcelona residents from buildings that have become symbols of the fight for housing, such as those from neighborhoods with modest incomes and hit by evictions such as Nou Barris, and others who cry out against incipient gentrification, like Clot. Pirineu Viu, which brings together municipalities from Vall d’Aran to Girona, has participated on behalf of groups from outside Barcelona. “The housing problem due to second homes affects large and small towns, but it is accentuated in two areas: with up to 90% of vacation homes, which on average are occupied only 10 nights a year; and La Seu d’Urgell and its region, where the enormous problem that Andorra has with housing is reflected,” explains Bernat Lavaquiol.
From the Reus Housing Union (Tarragona), Guillem Jové reports that in the city a high price increase coexists with the emergence of investment funds, occupation by vulnerable and racialized groups to whom no one wants to rent apartments: “The clauses abusive practices or non-compliance with the rental law also causes teachers with permanent employment contracts who arrive in the city to be forced to sign false seasonal contracts, or to not find apartments in Reus, which also expels residents to their surroundings.” Medium-sized cities like Reus share with others like Girona the presence of “local bourgeoisie that acts as informal power in their properties,” he adds.
Neighbors and activists have also traveled from Girona by train and private cars. From the Tenants’ Union, Aliou Diallo, with one foot in the city and the other in neighboring Salt, reports on the double conflict that the area is experiencing: “On the one hand, evictions that affect families with children and that are causing a problem that Teachers have warned that it affects the functioning of schools and institutes, racism on the part of owners, vulnerable families who cannot pay… and on the other hand, the touristification and gentrification of Girona capital, where part of the park has been diverted to tourist or seasonal rental, because real estate agencies ignore the regulation of rental prices.”
