“Impunity, illegality, and disorder cannot continue to roam at will in Puerta del Sol”. The government of the Community of Madrid, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is raising the tone and demanding that the Moncloa evict the encampment that was set up on Saturday in Puerta del Sol, right in front of the Royal Post Office, the headquarters of the Madrid presidency. After the protesters have spent their third night there, the Madrid executive has sent a formal request to the Spanish government's Delegation to remove them within a maximum period of 48 hours.

The Puerta del Sol in Madrid woke up this morning with the usual hustle and bustle of tourists, but with an unprecedented image not seen for fifteen years: the tents of the protesters for the right to housing have been pitched since this Saturday night in the middle of the square, emulating the 15-M movement of 2011. They intend to stay there at least until Tuesday, which is when they are demanding that the council of ministers presided over by Pedro Sánchez approve a decree-law that solves the housing problem.

On Wednesday, Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave what had been her home for more than seventy years. She left on an emergency stretcher, unable to collect her belongings and exhausted, with high levels of anxiety after having experienced four eviction attempts at the age of 87. Social movements have turned the case of this woman from Madrid into a symbol of the serious housing problem affecting Spain. The Ombudsman has also stated that her story illustrates the shortcomings in the protection of vulnerable people against residential eviction, especially in large cities. This Friday, Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL, the fund that owns the property, presented a proposal to the Madrid City Council so that she could return to her apartment. The proposal, however, was rejected by the Madrid city council because "it does not meet the legal requirements" and it has offered to mediate.

It is deeply embarrassing that the eviction of this elderly lady in Madrid was necessary for everyone to suddenly rush to action. Firstly, because it is not serious, and secondly, for those who claim they have been warning us for a long time, because an anti-eviction decree will soften the blow, but it is not the solution to the housing problem.

The eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old neighbor from Madrid who uses a wheelchair, has been the catalyst for a wave of protests across the country. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in eleven cities to show their unrest and fed-up attitude regarding the lack of housing policies that protect cases like this woman's. In Barcelona, about 1,200 people, according to data from the Guàrdia Urbana, gathered in front of the Spanish government delegation to demand urgent solutions and send a message of solidarity to Maricarmen: "You are not alone!".

Receiving a home as an inheritance, especially from parents to children, is no longer an anecdote or a cyclical phenomenon, but a structural one, related to the generational turnover in a society where the number of retirees and elderly people who own properties is growing, and a youth that does not earn enough to be able to own a home is losing weight. Until June, this type of transmission has continued at high levels, although with more force in the State as a whole than in Catalonia, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The rent cap has taken up almost all the media attention, but the declaration of a stressed residential market area (ZMRT) provides for other instruments to facilitate access to housing. This Wednesday, the Spanish government announced direct subsidies to these territories, as established by the state housing law: it intends to distribute 90 million euros among the five autonomous communities that have applied the measure. Of this figure, Catalonia will receive 60 million, as it concentrates 75% of the population living in an area where the housing market is stressed, and 85.5% of the municipalities.

The Civil Guard of Altea and the Local Police of La Nucia, in the demarcation of Alicante, have assisted a woman trapped in a fire in her home. The density of the smoke and the magnitude of the flames prevented the woman from leaving the home, and the officers managed to force the bars of a window, access the interior, and evacuate her while the firefighters arrived.

Catalan construction companies have stated that the Generalitat has only put out to tender 3,000 flats from the famous Plan 50,000, thus qualifying what the President of the Government, Salvador Illa, said, who said there were 31,041 "underway" during an intervention in Parliament in October. Furthermore, they have warned that "none are finished". The Catalan executive committed to incorporate 50,000 affordable rental flats into the market, which are to be built by 2030.

The Spanish government will toughen restrictions on building in flood-prone areas. The executive wants to approve new regulations to ensure that homes created in these areas cannot have garages or basements. The draft royal decree on flood risk management, which will be released for public information this Thursday, establishes that new homes built in flood-prone areas must be raised at least one meter above the water level. The new rule also prohibits these new constructions from having underground garages, basements, or any underground buildings.

Almost a decade after the ambitious project to convert the central nave of the Can Batlló industrial complex into a large agora open to neighbors and the sole headquarters of all Barcelona's archives was presented, the municipal government has taken a step forward to unblock a long-claimed infrastructure. "With this announcement, what we have had to wait for so many years, we make it happen. Work begins in the first quarter of next year," highlighted the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni.

Room for 350 euros plus 300 euros for registration. The formula is repeated on advertising websites and exemplifies how complicated it is to register without a rental contract. Ángela (she doesn't want to give her surname) spent two years trying to get the owner who rented her a shared room in an apartment in Barcelona's Horta neighborhood to register her and, desperate due to the refusals, she went on Facebook and immediately a range of possibilities opened up for her to register in another dwelling without living there. She says she paid 300 euros, and two years later she had the "surprise" that they were asking for 150 more for the renewal. "Desperation makes you end up paying what they ask for," states this Colombian woman with a stable job and no record with social services.

A few days ago, the governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, warned that housing is a true national emergency. He is not wrong. This problem, which is a growing concern for citizens, has become the main source of growth in social inequality. Whichever data you look at, the diagnosis is always the same: there is more demand than supply, expensive and practically inaccessible for a large part of the population. And of the supply that exists, some is in the hands of non-residents or are apartments used for tourist rentals. In total, there are about 900,000 across the country, according to data from the Bank of Spain.

The Spanish government boasts about the construction of protected housing (HPO). Spain has begun to build the highest number of HPO homes in a first quarter since 2012, in a context of prices at peak levels and access to housing among citizens' main concerns. In parallel, it has also reached the highest number of completed HPO since then.

The sale price of housing in Catalonia during the first quarter has risen by 10.5% compared to the same period last year, below the state average of 12.9%, according to the housing price index published by the INE this Monday.

When access to housing is difficult or impossible for a large part of the population, as has been the case for some time, phenomena emerge that can transport us to the past. The growth rate of monthly rents and down payments to buy an apartment that many citizens see as astronomical, especially young people but also many salaried workers whose monthly income falls short, increase inequality. The difficulty of access to housing has become the main problem for reducing social imbalances. On the contrary, the constant increase in the price of apartments only serves to increase the number of those expelled from the market.

The Barcelona City Council plans to raffle 598 protected housing units (HPO) during 2026, more than 80% of which will be for rent. According to information obtained by the newspaper ARA, they are divided into twelve developments, and the council will hold a raffle for each one. To date, Barcelona has already held five, which have served to distribute 246 apartments, 41.13% of the total. A raffle is planned for this May, one in June, one in September, a couple in November, and two more in December.

The Ministry of Finance has on the table a bill proposed by non-profit foundations that manage social housing, such as Habitat3 or Provivienda. The entities – grouped under the ALIVAS umbrella – want to create a new legal figure with the aim of expanding this segment of the residential market in Spain, the "social housing providers". According to sources from the Spanish government, they explain to ARA, the intention is for the law to reach Congress "as soon as possible", and for the socialist group to process it because the process is "faster" and has "fewer procedures" if done through parties.

The daily one-year Euribor, the main reference for variable-rate mortgages, closed April with a new increase, reaching 2.848%. The average stood at 2.747%, compared to 2.143% a year ago, and a new increase is added to that of March. Consequently, this evolution, which places this reference at the levels of September 2024, means the average mortgage (173,280 euros, according to INE data from February, over 25 years) will increase its monthly installment by 55.94 euros or 671.28 annually, to 890.60 euros per month or 10,687.2 euros per year.

Housing costs are now a financial burden for the vast majority of the Catalan population. More than 80% must dedicate over 30% of their income to rent payments, and up to 36% must set aside half their salary. This additional strain is significantly lower among homeowners with outstanding mortgages, with percentages of 62% and 20%, respectively. These figures come from the report. Housing, the cement of inequalitiesA report published by Oxfam Intermón highlights that the cost of housing has increased by 56% since 2014 without a corresponding rise in wages. The report paints a picture of a society where housing is the primary driver of social inequality. And more than by neighborhood, the imbalance is determined by whether or not renting is involved. Only 15% of renters can meet the Bank of Spain's recommendation to spend less than a third of their income on housing. In contrast, among those with a mortgage, the percentage reaches 80%. According to Raquel Checa, head of Oxfam Intermón's Zero Inequality campaign, renting has become "the great trap," as soaring prices make saving almost impossible.