The 2008 economic crisis ended, at least theoretically, in 2013. It was the last year in which the Spanish economy recorded negative growth. The consequences of the recession still persist today, and are exacerbated by the more recent rise in price of a very specific group of products in the shopping basket. They are fundamentally two: housing and food, as made clear by the Generalitat in the Social Report 2025. These two elements are also the main drivers of the general strike called for November 11th.

Enric Aragonès (Reus, 1991) arrives directly from work—in a job that has nothing to do with activism—at the space in the central headquarters of the University of Barcelona from where the Sindicat de Llogateres (Tenants' Union) is organizing the general strike of November 11. Between photographs, he is grateful that we are conducting an in-depth interview to discuss the call to action on the eve of the elections, in a fast-paced world where current events usually move from one statement to the next.

Anna Puigdevall (Barcelona, 1968) has worked her entire professional life in the business sector, after studying physics, and for less than two years she has been part of the property owners' association Som Habitatge. They claim that they are financed through member dues and donations, and that they do not receive resources from any large real estate management company.

Catalonia continues to break all tourism records. For the first time, it has surpassed the 16 million international visitor barrier in the first nine months of the year—a particularly significant period because it includes the summer, traditionally the strongest season—and the 20 billion euro mark in total spending.

Two years after the entry into force of rent caps, the Generalitat fiercely defends the measure: "It is working as planned," asserts the Minister for the sector, Sílvia Paneque. Rents across the country have risen by 1% since the first quarter of 2024 – just before the regulation was applied – according to the deposits held by Incasòl. At the same time, contrary to the premises of the real estate sector, the Generalitat guarantees that "the regulation has not reduced supply," but rather turnover: families change housing less often and stay longer in the apartments they already occupy.

Spain is discussing how to intervene in the market to manage the existing housing stock while, in parallel –at least on paper– it is increasing supply with new construction. The decrees that triggered the 29-N election call put on the table the extension of leases, limiting price updates (and even freezing them), and prohibiting the eviction of vulnerable people without a housing alternative. On the other side of the border, Portugal is proposing a practically opposite formula to address one of the worst housing access crises (if not the worst) in the European Union.

Buyers from outside the State are losing weight in the housing market for the first time since 2023. Between January and June, they have acquired 9% fewer properties than during the same period in 2025, according to the Notarial Observatory of Catalonia. Even so, they still carry out almost two out of every ten purchases authorized in the country, 18.5%. In absolute terms, there are 10,293 operations.

With two weeks to go until the strike for housing access, the homeowners' union Som Habitatge has presented fifteen proposals to resolve the serious crisis the country is experiencing. Among others, the association, which defines itself as "the voice of the small owner", has demanded that one must own at least 100 properties to be considered a large holder.

The Volkswagen Group is going through a deep crisis, and this is confirmed by the numbers the company presented this Thursday. During the first nine months of the year, the net result of the German parent company of Seat has plummeted, going from profits of 3.405 billion last year to losses of 2.720 billion this year. The operating profit—which comes strictly from the company's main activity, without being impacted by taxes or financial costs—also fell sharply (-98.7%) and stands at 71 million, compared to 5.408 billion a year ago. "The results make one thing clear: we cannot afford to waste time and we must act with speed and decisiveness," said the Group's CFO and COO, Arno Antlitz.

Catalonia must invest 52.838 billion euros in infrastructure over the next ten years to cover the country's priority needs. The estimate, prepared by Spanish construction and concession companies (grouped under the umbrella of the Seopan business association) and Catalan contractors (the Chamber of Construction Contractors of Catalonia, CCOC), includes both new construction and actions to resolve current maintenance deficits. They believe that 34.443 billion should be allocated to creating facilities—65% of the total required—and the remaining almost 18.4 billion to maintenance.

It seems there are changes in the housing market. Sales involving mortgages are gaining weight, and in August they already reached half of the 12,442 transactions closed in Catalonia, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) published this Monday. It is a proportion not seen since 2011, in the midst of the economic crisis.

The situation is contradictory in capital letters: while developers warn that the lack of land is one of the main impediments to the creation of new housing, the data show that there is an "overabundance" of vacant and stagnant land, which is not entering the market. Only in the municipalities declared a tense residential market zone (ZMRT) –that is, where policies such as caps are needed to facilitate access to housing in a context of high demand–, there is land to build 423,600 apartments on plots that are not yet part of the urban fabric, but are at its gates. Beforehand they must be urbanized or require changes of use, but the town councils, in their urban plans, already foresaw that housing would be built there.

Never before had so many tourists stayed in hotels in Catalonia as in the first nine months of this year, when they exceeded 18.7 million guests, 4.42% more than in the same period last year. However, stays continue to become shorter, in a context where tourism services are becoming more expensive above inflation.

If the owner of your apartment has more than one rented property, it is likely that you have noticed the price hike more than the tenant of a landlord who has only one property on the market. In fact, according to a study by the Esade think tank published this Thursday, the more apartments an owner accumulates, the more they increase the monthly payments.

Salvador Illa's government continues to give momentum to one of the star measures of its term: loans for young people for the first purchase of an apartment or house to serve as their primary residence. Now they will also be able to be used to finance rehabilitation works and purchase homes that already have official protection (HPO) status, as reported by the regional minister and government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, in a press conference this Tuesday.

In Catalonia, "working is not enough" for 28.3% of employed people who live in rented housing, and who see how, after paying the monthly rent, they fall below the poverty line. Faced with the serious housing crisis, Oxfam Intermón notes that the costs of having a place to live exacerbate working poverty, in a study published this Tuesday.

The World Economic Forum puts figures to the feeling that traveling is becoming increasingly expensive. The organization that gathers the elite of the global economy and politics in Davos warns that, since 2024, tourism prices have soared above inflation in 75% of destinations, according to a recent report consulted by ARA. The Travel & tourism development index 2026 concludes that the tourism sector worldwide has lost price competitiveness in the last two years, even though the influx of visitors on a global scale has continued to grow.

It is unusual for Judit Carrera, director of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), to appear in the economics pages. Tourism governance and access to housing are two such huge and transversal challenges that they also impact the definition of Barcelona as a city and its cultural dynamics. From the CCCB, she has placed these topics at the center of many of her activities, from the Biennial of Thought that is being held these days to the Cities and Tourism cycle, for which there are precisely two new activities this very week. The topic, however, also affects the very functioning of the center. Carrera, on one hand, argues that limits must be placed on tourism and, on the other, is committed to the CCCB reaching more foreign visitors. When the search for a new tourism model has become the Holy Grail, Carrera establishes culture as a vector of change.

The expansion of Barcelona airport will be a reality in less than ten years. "By 2036 everything will be finished and in operation," assured the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, this Friday at the Association of Economists of Catalonia (CEC). In fact, Lucena has gone a step further and has opened the door to bringing forward some investments that, for the moment, are planned for the 2032-36 period.

Discussions about the housing crisis begin with economic arguments at vermouth time, move on to politics, social complexity, management in the historical sphere, and immigration. By dessert time, the conversation is still not over. Almost always during the conversation, morality, legitimacy, and values also come into play.