Tens of thousands protest in Barcelona over high housing costs

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday evening to protest soaring housing prices across Catalonia.

Under the banner “It’s over!” protesters demanded more accessible rentals for residents of the northeastern region of Spain.

According to organizers, 126,000 people participated in the protests, though Barcelona police estimated the crowd at around 22,000.

About 4,000 organizations — including unions, separatist groups, neighborhood associations, and feminist collectives — joined the march.

Enric Aragonès, a spokesperson for the renters’ union, told Spanish daily El País that the protesters have four clear demands.

First, they are calling for rents to be cut in half immediately, given that prices have doubled in the last decade.

They are also demanding indefinite rental contracts and for the government to return vacant homes and tourist rentals to the housing market.

Finally, they are urging the government to outlaw speculative purchases and enact measures to block the accumulation of properties.

“Investors should not be able to come to our cities and play with homes as if it were Monopoly,” said Carme Arcanzo, another spokesperson for the renters’ union.

A recent report by the CCOO union found that in Barcelona, the average cost of renting an apartment exceeds 50% of the average wage.

Although the city has announced a plan to ban all short-term rentals in the coming years, both legal and illegal tourist apartments remain a significant problem, protesters say.

The protests in Barcelona follow similar mass mobilizations in Madrid, Seville, and Malaga.

Meanwhile, momentum is growing for rent strikes in Spain, with some already underway. In particular, some groups of renters are refusing to pay rent or portions of their rent to protest price increases, especially in apartment buildings owned by housing corporations.