"City of Lost Homes": Barcelona's housing crisis on the front page of the New York Times

BarcelonaThe housing crisis in Barcelona makes the front page of the international edition of the newspaper The New York Times, with a photograph of the Orsola House to illustrate a report entitled "City of Lost Homes and Hope" (City of lost homes and hope, in English). In its online version, the article also points out in the headline that the Catalan capital has become "ground zero for Europe's housing dilemma."

The report speaks of the "complex" problem faced by most major European cities, but adds that Barcelona is one of the most evident cases of the situation and the difficulties in solving the housing shortage and rising prices. "With the summer tourist season approaching, the city is more urgently in need of solutions," the American newspaper reports.

"Since 2015, almost a tenth of the country's housing stock has been accumulated by investors or converted for tourist rentals," explains the article. New York Times on the real estate market in Spain. "The shortage has allowed prices to rise much faster than wages, which has put affordable housing out of reach for many people," he adds.

The article reports on the various policies announced by Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat (Catalan government), and the Spanish government to alleviate rising housing prices and increase demand, such as the promise to build 50,000 new homes, he rental price cap and the pause in the issuance of tourist apartment licensesIt also addresses criticism from organizations such as the Socialist Housing Union of Catalonia, which considers the measures announced by the administration to be insufficient and erroneous, and reflects the opinions of real estate companies such as Idealista.

In addition, the New York newspaper reports on the conflict of House Orsola and speaks with witnesses, including residents of Casa Fajol, a modernist building in the Eixample district (also called Casa de la Papallona) that a Dutch investment fund is trying to convince its tenants to abandon in order to convert it into seasonal rentals.