The housing crisis continues to worsen. While evictions take on a proper name, the public seems to say enough is enough and politicians are racing against the clock to find solutions, the data only confirm the severity of the problem: housing prices are moving further and further away from salaries and families' ability to save.

The Spanish government approved two different royal decrees on Tuesday. One with a very broad battery of measures ranging from limiting the speculative purchase of properties to temporarily suspending some evictions, and another with a single measure: the automatic renewal of rental contracts, the main demand of the Tenants' Union, which has been camping at the Puerta del Sol since the weekend—an image that evoked the 15-M movement—, and of all the left-wing parties. At the same time, it is the decree that hangs by the thinnest thread (it will hardly prosper) due to the misgivings of Junts and the PNV regarding the approach. However, what is the fine print?

I read that Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona, has had to leave her apartment because she cannot make ends meet. She is separated and has two children.

Urbagestión, the investment fund that owns Maricarmen Abascal's apartment, reached an agreement this Monday with the resident's lawyers so that she can return home. The 87-year-old woman was evicted last week from the apartment where she lived in Madrid's Retiro neighborhood, which has triggered mobilizations throughout the State, an encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and a race-against-the-clock negotiation between the Spanish government and its investiture partners for an emergency housing decree. Now Maricarmen will have to ratify the agreement, her representatives explained, stating that she will have to pay around 30% of her pension, approximately 500 euros (similar to the amount she was paying until now), in a contract renewed for eight years.

Maybe it is not the 15-M, but many things remind us of it. "The people united will never be defeated". "Long live the struggle of the working class", sing the thousands of people who this Monday night remain in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, many of whom will spend their third night there defying the rain and the cold that has suddenly arrived in the Spanish capital. They are all clear that until the so-called Maricarmen decree with the at least four requests made by the Tenants' Union goes ahead, they will not move.

Most people have opened a real estate portal and performed a search that fits their needs, whether to find a place to live—with a certain sense of desperation, in more than one case—or to conduct a homemade market study. However, what are the requirements for a future home and to what extent do they end up conditioning the final decision?

Barcelona has gone from 110 applicants per rental dwelling to 437. This data was provided this week by KPMG at the APIE courses, and it summarizes the market situation better than any other. Before the housing law, there was already tension. Now there is a bottleneck. Four times more demand for each available apartment.In the same intervention, another relevant figure was cited: since the approval of the law, approximately 120,000 homes would have disappeared from the rental market in Spain, of which about 60,000 would correspond to Catalonia. These are sectoral estimates, they should be treated as such, but they fit with what many citizens perceive when looking for an apartment: fewer ads, more filters, more competition, and a greater sense of impossibility.The regulation of rent has achieved something that its defenders can present as a success: prices have risen less in Catalonia than in Madrid. According to data cited by Fedea, between the first quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, rent accumulated an increase of 5.7% in Barcelona and Catalonia, compared to 8.5% in Madrid. The difference exists. It is important to acknowledge it. The regulation has moderated part of the increase.The question is: was it worth it to contain a three-point increase compared to Madrid if, in return, there are half the apartments and the number of applicants per apartment quadruples?Access to housing is measured by the rental price, of course, but also by accessibility. A smaller increase in rent is of little use to someone who cannot even visit the apartment. A more protected contract greatly benefits someone who is already inside an apartment, but is of little use to someone trying to get in.It is true that part of the fall in visible supply can be explained by lower turnover and more contract renewals. This was precisely one of the effects sought by the regulations: to give stability to the existing tenant. Surely those who already lived for rent have been a little more protected, but this protection has a downside: the new applicant finds a smaller, more selective and harsher market.Many economists warned about this from the beginning. The price is a symptom of a problem, not its root cause. When the price rises too much, it indicates scarcity, lack of supply, excess demand, or a combination of all of them. Managing the price without resolving the scarcity can alleviate the fever, but it does not cure the infection.Housing policy needs to increase supply, provide legal certainty and mobilize land. Capping prices collapses supply. It was textbook. The problem persists.

Young people and migrants are particularly suffering from the housing crisis in Catalonia, as in many other European regions. These two groups are an important part of the low-income population, who are the ones who suffer the most from this problem.

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce presented its plan this Wednesday to combat the housing crisis. The business entity announced a set of 20 "structural" measures to face the challenge that it represents for the country. According to the Chamber, the objectives of the initiative are to "sustainably increase the housing supply, reinforce legal certainty, and guarantee access to decent housing for all citizens". Estimates collected by the entity indicate that in the next five years, more than 180,000 new housing needs will have to be met.

The Barcelona Metropolitan Housing Observatory calculates the real impact of the rent cap. Prices in the Catalan capital would have risen by between 160 and 270 euros more per month if this measure had not been implemented, according to a report prepared by this entity. Without regulation, the document states, rents would have continued to rise to 1,318.6 euros per month, following the trend of the last decade, or could even have risen further, to 1,492.2 euros, if the accelerated growth rate of the market in recent years had been maintained.

Mortgage lending continues to circulate – in fact, some financial institutions have warned that it is doing so unsustainably – while housing prices rise month after month. In this context, some are already noticing a difficulty in buying: households where the main residence is rented have a "limited financial capacity" to acquire a first property through a mortgage, according to the Bank of Spain. Be that as it may, the scenario shows no signs of concern in the opinion of the supervisory body, which for some months has been analyzing whether to activate any limitations on the lending criteria for high-risk mortgages that are being granted.

The Spanish government was forced to divide aid for the war in the Middle East into two parts. The first, with tax rebates on fuel, among other aspects, had already been validated by Congress. But the opposition from Junts has derailed the second decree, the one on housing, which among other measures proposed extending rental contracts that were nearing their end by two years and a cap of 2% on rent increases.

The Spanish government was forced to divide aid for the war in the Middle East into two parts. The first, with tax rebates on fuels, among other aspects, was already validated by Congress. But the opposition from Junts has derailed the second decree, that of housing, which among other measures proposed extending rental contracts that reached their term by two years and a cap of 2% on rent increases.

Junts has assured that it will vote against the housing decree that will be debated this Tuesday in Congress, as reported by 'El País' and confirmed by the ACN. Last week, Carles Puigdemont's party proposed a deduction on mortgages and rents to "give air to the middle class" and assured that the Spanish government had the possibility of withdrawing the royal decree. Consulted sources recall that the decree going to the plenary session cannot be modified and that in this way they cannot endorse it. "Our housing policies have been made clear," they point out, recalling that there are also pending issues such as the reduction of fees for the self-employed.

Two housing measures hang by a thread: the extraordinary extension of rental contracts ending between March 22, 2026, and December 31, 2027, and the limitation of the annual update of contracts to 2% to avoid inflation hikes due to the war in the Middle East. Both proposals are included in the Spanish government's decree to address, precisely, the economic shock of the war on housing, particularly on rents, and which the Congress votes on this Tuesday. Nothing suggests, however, that it will prosper.

Tuesday, April 28, we have a lot at stake as a society. On this day, Congress will decide whether to approve the extension of rental contracts, a measure that could prevent nearly 475,000 tenants in Catalonia, and more than 3 million across the State, with contracts expiring soon, from being forced to leave their homes in the coming months.

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 Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda sent a letter this Friday to 541 real estate agencies and investment funds that manage or concentrate 50 or more properties each, informing them that they must mandatorily extend the contracts of their tenants that expire between March 22, 2026, and December 31, 2027, if the tenants have requested it. In total, as the ministry reported in a statement, the companies to which this letter has been sent manage more than 50,000 rentals.

A bright orange Lamborghini speeds up. It's dazzling and makes a deafening noise. It parks in front of you and a young guy gets out, with a slicked-back blonde quiff and well-worked biceps, wearing a Gucci polo shirt worth over 1,000 euros, an appearance he completes with a gold ring and a Rolex watch. You've been following him on social media for a while and admire the money he makes and how he spends it. The cars, the houses, the outfits, the jewelry. You envy his trips around the world. Colombia, Costa Rica, the United Arab Emirates, Japan. You've been taking his advice on investing, on being a winner, for a long time. What is success if it's not what he does? You even set aside some of the little money you have to enjoy the privilege of having him all to yourself for a few hours, so he can explain how he's done it. He gets out of the car and calls you 'crack'. And, automatically, you feel like a crack. He fascinates you. He abducts you. He captivates you. He makes you fall in love.

The Association of Rental Property Owners (Asval) announced on Tuesday the creation of a permanent commission in Catalonia. During the presentation, Asval asserted that they need greater legal certainty and a more ""Clear, stable, and predictable." In fact, the association's new delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Muñoz, has asserted that this lack of legal certainty is what, in many cases, leads to "conflict" between landlords and tenants. "Landlords and tenants share a common interest: that the system works," Muñoz affirmed. "Without landlords, there is no supply; without tenants, there is no one to request housing."