Thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Sunday, chanting and waving banners to protest soaring rents and a housing shortage, and calling for urgent government action.
Housing has consistently ranked among the top concerns for voters in Spain, where demand has risen due to tourism and immigration-linked population growth, while the supply of public rental housing remains limited.
Organised by the Madrid Tenants’ Union under the slogan “Housing costs us our lives. Lower rents”, the march was backed by Spain’s two main trade unions, UGT and CCOO.
“Housing measures, although some are moving in the right direction, are advancing at a snail’s pace, while the housing crisis is escalating rapidly,” CCOO secretary general Unai Sordo told reporters before the start of the march.
Organisers said more than 100,000 people took part in the protest.
The central government’s delegate to the region estimated 23,000 people had turned out for the march.
“More and more people are being forced into overcrowded conditions, having to live in shared rooms or even with other families,” a spokesman for the tenant’s union, Fernando de los Santos, told AFPTV at the march.
Average Spanish rents have doubled over the past decade, according to online real estate portal Idealista, far outpacing salary growth.
According to Spain’s central bank, the net creation of new households and a lag in housing construction created a deficit of 700,000 homes between 2021 and 2025.
“If we’re paying very high rent, it’s impossible for us to save up to buy a flat, so it’s a vicious circle we’re never going to escape,” Irene Guinea, a 29-year-old advertising worker, told AFP at the protest.
Nuria Nadim, a 32-year-old cultural programmer, said she spends 70 percent of her salary on rent, and relies on her family to make ends meet.
“I think the situation is reaching a point where it’s no longer compatible with working people’s lives,” she told AFP, calling it “unsustainable”.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who faces a general election next year, unveiled a new public investment fund in February that he said would raise 120 billion euros ($139 billion) and help tackle the country’s persistent housing crisis.