‘They want us out for AirBnB tourist lets’ - Spain’s housing crisis worsens

"I've been living here for 12 years, I have two young children. If we lose our home then finding another one here where our kids go to school will be double the price of rent, and buying? We can’t buy at these prices."

Jaime Oteyza lives at Tribulete Street No.7, an address that’s become totemic in Spanish locals’ fight to stay in their homes during the housing crisis.

"A family used to own this building but an investment fund bought the entire block, all 52 flats, and now they want us out so they can turn it into luxury apartments or tourist lets and make more money."

The investment fund that the neighbors call a "vulture fund" is Elix Rental Homes.

Jaime has two young children, a boy and a girl, with the youngest, Maya, just two years old. Jaime is an architect, his partner a psychologist, but despite having stable jobs Spanish wages have been swallowed up by soaring house and rent prices.

They say they’ve given up on buying in their neighborhood, where their kids go to school.

'The worst part is the anxiety, the stress, the fear'

Rental prices in Spain have doubled over the past decade and property prices have rocketed by 44 percent, putting owning a home out of the reach of many Spaniards, particularly young people.

"There are other families and people living alone in this building in much more desperate situations," Jaime adds.

Ivanka Alonso lives in the flat directly above Jaime and his family. She’s a video editor in her thirties who works from home, and Elix has left her in limbo.

"I’ve been living here for 10 years and my contract ended in October, September 30th, and they won’t give me a renewal, so my life is on hold right now, I’m hoping for a miracle," she says.

"The worst part is the anxiety, the stress, the fear. If I lose my home I’ll have to ask for help from family or friends, or go live on a couch somewhere."

Neighbors say the new owners are making life impossible: Construction work early in the morning, hallways full of dust and hanging cables, mould, power and water switched off without notice.

If it is a strategy, it’s working: In January 2024 there were more than 50 families in the building. Now fewer than half remain.

Elix declined an interview with CGTN, but did answer questions by email, saying the homes will not go to short-term tourist lets but to sale, "houses that the market desperately needs."

They declined to provide a price range, however, and insist that they are negotiating with residents.

But Jaime, Ivanka and the neighbours' association say that while the company does talk with them, it rejects all their proposals and say that emptying the building is Eli's only end game.

Similar stories are happening across Spain in the midst of record-breaking tourist arrivals and investment pouring in from wealthy Latin Americans. A million Venezuelans now live in Madrid.

Almost one-in-four families spend more than 40 percent of their income on their accommodation, according to a recent report by Spain's central bank.

Spain has welcomed this foreign investment through the Golden Visa scheme that allows wealthy investors to get EU residency with a 500 thousand euro ($500,000) property purchase, a scheme that the government ended in early April after 12 years.

One of the peculiarities of the Spanish political system is that regions have powerful autonomous governments, and they resist national government rules and even laws.

For example, the Madrid regional government President Isabel Ayuso is a powerful figure in the Partido Popular, or People’s Party, a centre-right party, while the national government is a coalition of the left led by Pedro Sanchez and the socialist party.

The left accuses Ayuso and the city Mayor Jose-Luis Martin Almeida of ignoring national laws regulating short-term tourist lets in the region, claiming that there are 15,000 apartments available on platforms like AirBnB that are technically illegal.

The Madrid government has actively sought investment from rich Latinos to such an extent that it’s now being called 'the new Miami.'

Local discontent with the situation is spilling onto the streets and on April 5 the first coordinated nationwide housing protest took place across more  than 40 cities, with tens of thousands of people marching for their constitutional right to a home.

Article 47 of the Spanish constitution guarantees a home for all Spaniards, but that right feels a far cry from the reality.

Renters' unions are organizing and say they want rent strikes and a general strike. They have pledged to occupy empty buildings like one in the La Latina neighbourhood, central Madrid, that they took over a year ago.

That's run by the 'La Rosa' organisation and the empty apartments are used as a cultural center, while others in Carabanchel and Vallecas neighbourhoods are squats with people living in.

'For every eviction, a new occupation'

Spain’s squatters rights are unique and, while not legal, if a property is left empty or abandoned squatters often use Article 47 as support for their case.

One of the chants at the April 5 march was "for every eviction, a new occupation."

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has promised "more housing, better regulation and greater aid for access to housing," but protestors say it isn’t happening fast enough.

Back at Tribulete street number 7, the neighbours have got creative, holding street party protests with artists and musicians playing from their balconies, their struggle going viral.

"The only way we can win this is if ordinary people unite," Ivanka says. "The powers that are trying to leave us homeless are united - the vulture funds, the politicians, the companies, they’re united on one side, if we don’t do the same and confront them on the other side then we don’t have a chance."

Jaime agrees. "In our parents' generation just one salary was enough to buy a house, a vehicle, now we need two salaries just to pay the rent. The problem here in Spain is that there are no laws or regulations that stop landlords constantly putting the prices up.

"Madrid is at the mercy of the free market, they either want to raise the rent or evict you and the only solution has to come from the government, from the administration, they need to guarantee our constitutional right.

Slowly, however, families tire of living in a construction site and one-by-one they are leaving, making the future even more uncertain for those who remain.

"I don’t have much hope left," says Ivanka, "in the short term none at all."