The tramontana wind, bitterly cold this mid-November Monday, howls furiously through the narrow, steep streets of Cadaqués, deserted today, with closed doors and windows and drawn shutters on bars and restaurants, all displaying signs announcing extended holidays. Quietude, tranquility, and the only sound, the onslaught of the tramontana. This is the Cadaqués that the Japanese painter Shigeyoshi Koyama loves, the Cadaqués he so desperately misses during the summer, when the revelry and noise take over the town day and night, forcing him into exile in the quiet village of Vilanova de la Muga until September, when the summer visitors leave and Cadaqués returns.

The divide between the two Barcelonas caused by the housing crisis is becoming increasingly profound, accelerating the gentrification of some neighborhoods and the depopulation of others. This is confirmed by the latest report from the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB), entitled SOS HousingThe study, which found that in 2024 there were more than 600 large speculative housing developments underway in the Catalan capital, affecting more than 11,800 homes, mostly involved families forced to leave their homes due to the expiration of their rental contracts. These developments are part of "the typical operation of buying an entire building, evicting the residents, and renovating to sell at luxury prices," spokespeople stated. The study combines official data (from the Catalan Housing Agency, the Barcelona City Council, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area) with fieldwork conducted with neighborhood associations. The spokesperson for the FAVB Housing Commission, Jaume Artigues, explained that between the first and second halves of last year, speculative housing developments increased from 477 to 619. Of these, the vast majority (568 transactions) were intended for sale: 30% after new construction and 70% subsequently. In total, according to the report, between 2016 and 2024, approximately 75,000 rental contracts expired without renewal, affecting some 180,000 residents.