The rent, a collective horror story

BarcelonaThree women took over the Espai Texas this Monday afternoon to weave a serene and thrilling narrative that kept the seats—filled to capacity—glued to every word. Writer Llucia Ramis, notary Camino Quiroga, and vice president of Amat Immobiliaris, Joana Amat, told a story of fear, uncertainty, and hope.

From different points of view, they discussed where the problems in the rental market lie. With Maricarmen's eviction still resonating, and the election call fresh out of the oven, this Monday Quiroga asserted that the rental issue is "absolutely terrible" from a human point of view—despite shielding it behind the law of supply and demand—and Amat assured that "landlords are very distressed" at the possibility of not being able to recover their apartment once rented.

Ramis also spoke of distress, but, in her case, the kind she experienced firsthand due to the rising cost of monthly payments, while salaries do not keep up. "You tell yourself: 'And what will become of me?'", because "when you lose your home, you don't just lose your home, but also your entire surroundings", she recalled.

Beyond the price

While rental prices in Barcelona have been rising for five consecutive quarters, Quiroga and Amat have argued that "the mentality of the majority" of landlords, nowadays, is to keep a responsible tenant over the price. "It doesn't matter if they don't pay the full market price, as long as the person who is there is quiet and doesn't throw parties every day... This is the mentality that most people still have," she states.

The narrative of all three—opposed from an economic point of view—has sought the audience's empathy by appealing to the same emotions. Fear and uncertainty, at the forefront, followed by the recognition of the other's ordeal: "These are perceptions," Ramis let slip.

The dialogue table returns

The discussion ended with calls for a "dialogue table" that recalled past eras. Amat has opted to sit down owners, tenants, institutions, and professionals, always within the framework of legal certainty.

However, despite the shared emotions and the good tone, Quiroga closed the conversation by claiming that "the owner earns their money as they can, and one way is also to rent," on the same day that the unions CCOO and UGT have yielded to the Tenants' Union and have ensured that they will call for a general strike before the November 29 elections.

Housing and Cinema Cycle

This has been the first session of the ARTEC cinema and debate series on housing, planned by the Barcelona Technical Architecture Association (Cateb) until November 30th at Espai Texas. The dialogues are followed by a film that has the search for and construction of a home as its background, and are moderated by journalists from the ARA newspaper.

Among others, the economist and president of the Hàbitat3 Foundation, Carme Trilla; the general director of Som Habitatge, Anna Puigdevall, and the digital communicator Pol Casellas will take the floor.