Housing: a state matter
It is not as simple as directly applying economic theory, but it must be taken into account. One of the main ways to ensure that housing ceases to be a luxury good, as it is today – especially in large cities, but also in medium-sized ones, which suffer from the price increase caused by the flight of demand seeking more affordable places to live – is to increase supply. And for this supply to adapt to demand. But this is easier said than done. Having become the main concern of the population, housing is actually a state issue, which all parties should assume.
The fact is that the problem is being tackled partially. In Catalonia, for example, there are measures stemming from the housing law, such as the cap on rental prices, which have apparently yielded results, but the increases must be examined under a microscope to get a clearer idea of what is happening. In the case of Catalonia, the average rental price is already higher than before the cap came into effect. However, in the city of Barcelona, although it has not yet surpassed the price at that time, it has been rising throughout 2025 and, if the price per square meter is taken as a reference, it already exceeds the pre-cap level.
Furthermore, the total number of new contracts has been decreasing and the surface area of apartments in new rentals is getting smaller and smaller. In short, more is paid for fewer meters. The total price may be lower, but what is paid per meter is higher. The available rental housing supply, for its part, continues to grow, but at a much slower pace. The Generalitat is proposing more initiatives related to greater bureaucratic streamlining, for example, but the results will still take time.
It should be taken into account that the increase in rental prices in the city of Barcelona in the last 20 years (78.39%) has practically doubled that of disposable income per capita (up to 2024, 35.83%). It is evident that the problem is structural and requires transversal and combined solutions, according to experts. The Spanish government has launched, with delay, the housing plan until 2030 with measures to increase supply through public development, abandoned for years; and, on the other hand, others aimed at demand, with support for rehabilitation and aid to vulnerable groups or those with great difficulty accessing housing, such as young people. But to function it needs the collaboration of the autonomies, which are the ones with the most competencies in the matter, and of the town councils. And many do not seem willing to do so.
For some time now, housing has become an element that accentuates and amplifies social inequality. It is a problem that must be tackled in a coordinated manner. A minimum pact between political forces with the possibility of governing would be one of the most positive options, and to avoid everyone going their own way. This is what can be expected from politics, because when it is based solely on constant struggle, opportunism, and polarization, without offering truly useful proposals for the issues that most concern citizens, the ground is prepared for populism and simple, magical recipes for the most complex problems.