"While Spain's economy continues to grow on paper, the reality on the ground tells a different story one of worsening inequality and housing exclusion. In the past decade, more than half of all homes have been bought without a mortgage, a sign that many are being acquired not by those in need of housing but by those who already own property. The number of people who own at least 10 homes has jumped by 20%."
"Since the mortgage crisis of 2008, more than 1.3m units have entered Spain's rental market. They weren't newly built, but homes lost by working-class families and scooped up by investors, including large private equity firms. The conservative government in power between 2011 and 2018 not only handed out tax breaks and public money through a massive bailout of the banks, but also rewrote tenancy laws to turn tenants themselves into profitable assets for those institutions."
Rents in Madrid and Barcelona have risen about 60% and sale prices about 90% over the past decade, making housing unaffordable for young people, working families and retirees. Madrid and Barcelona pursue divergent strategies: one emphasizes large-scale construction and investor access, while the other tries to steer the market toward public-interest housing despite political and institutional constraints. More than half of recent home purchases occurred without mortgages, and ownership of ten or more homes rose 20%. Since 2008, some 1.3 million units entered the rental market after being lost by working-class families and bought by investors. Policy choices, tax breaks and tenancy law changes have favored asset accumulation by the wealthy and inflated rents.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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