Housing unions threaten rent and general strikes on march in Madrid

More than 22,000 people took over the streets of central Madrid to demand solutions to a housing crisis that is putting millions of people at risk of "rent poverty".

Young people and lower-income families are suffering most from out-of-control housing and rental prices.

House prices have soared by 50 percent in 10 years in the Spanish capital, making home ownership a distant dream for many while also forcing millions into rental accommodation - sending rent prices sky-rocketing too. In some parts of Spain, they have risen by 100 percent in 15 years and the anger and frustration is palpable.

"We cannot pay our rent or we have to give so much money to our landlord that we don't have money to live," Alicia del Rio, a secondary school teacher, tells CGTN at the march. "And I have a decent job, there are people in much worse situations.”

She is wearing the orange shirt of a housing syndicate, part of a larger federation of neighborhood associations who are chanting in favor of rent and general strikes.

"We are saying that we will do a rent strike if needed because we cannot bear this situation anymore, it's the time of the unions, it's the time of the tenants, a rent strike is going to happen," continues Del Rio.

A perfect storm of high interest rates, foreign investment, short-term lets like Airbnb, high demand and a very low stock of public and social housing has left many Spaniards in limbo. None of this is helped by the fact Spain has the second-lowest salary levels in Western Europe behind only Portugal.

"We can't go on like this, we just can't, the prices have to come down," another protestor tells us above the noise, which is so loud that we can't make out her name.

"Young people are at the end of our patience," she adds, carrying a sign that says: "A home is a human right."

Julia is a sociologist, carrying her baby in a harness, and says: "I pay over 30 percent of my salary to rent a room in a shared house.

"I'm sick of this, we can't even make ends meet, it's outrageous the price we pay to share a half-decent house with my child. We want regulation of house prices, we want an end to the speculation on something that should be a right for everyone.

"If they don't do something, then rent strikes and general strikes are a union tool that has been used for years. If the government doesn't change things, then we will."

The Spanish constitution states that everyone has the right to a dignified place to live but experts say five and a half million households are at risk of residential exclusion.

Spain needs to build over half a million houses, experts say, just to keep up with demand.

Mallorca, the Canary Islands and Barcelona have all seen protests against over tourism because locals feel they are being priced out of the housing market. One march in Barcelona even saw protestors aiming water pistols at visitors, chanting: "Tourists go home."

In Barcelona, a house that goes up on the rental market receives on average 350 applications.

Angeles is a university lecturer and says there are solutions: "There are places where things are working, like Vienna. We would like to follow the Viennese model, where there's lots of social housing and affordable homes for rent."

Spain's new housing law, drawn up by its socialist-led coalition government, is not sufficient according to protestors with activists drumming up support for rent and general strikes.

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