In Santiago de Compostela, rents have risen by 40.26% in five years: they have gone from an average of €444 per month in 2019 to €623 in 2024. Although the prices are far from what Barcelonians pay –an average of €1,137, according to the Generalitat–, Santiago meets the conditions established in the state housing law to be considered a Stressed Residential Market Area (ZMRT), the umbrella term that allows rent caps to be set.

Housing is an issue that has gained prominence among citizens' concerns in recent years. Increasingly high prices due to a supply that doesn't keep up with demand and a shrinking and extremely expensive rental market shape the current landscape. And it has fueled discontent among an increasing number of citizens, especially younger ones. Governments, which for many years have left the functioning of the housing market in the hands of the free market, are now rushing to solve a problem that takes time: a housing stock isn't built overnight. The trend so far has led us to levels of public and/or subsidized housing that place us at the bottom of the European list.