Real estate agent Juan Sanchez, who did not want his real name published in this article, opens the glass door of an apartment which used to be a shop. Visitors step directly into the kitchen from the roads of the Spain capital. The roof is very high.
“You can easily add a mejenine here,” Sachez says, and suggests that the advertised two bedrooms are in the basement, and rather small. One of them does not even have a window.
However, space can be “easily rented students” for € 1,300 ($ 1.484) “if the future buyer calls” a small catch “, is ready to ignore what.
“The bottom is officially listed as a storage space in the property registry, -we do not get a residential permit. But it is no problem for the pensioner,” he tells DW.
The 55-class meter (592 sq-ft) location advertised as an apartment located in a middle class neighbor in the middle Madrid is listed to sell for more than € 300,000.
Unlike a decade ago, when cheap credit increased housing prices in Spain, today, sky-high prices for the Middle-Rage apartments are also driven by foreign investors with deep pockets. He has invested huge amount in Spain’s attractive housing sector and has raised prices in the entire housing market in the process, bouncing the tourism industry. according to a Report By Spanish institute BBVA research, the demand supply is significantly enhancing the supply.
Living in Spain, megill, struggling to tolerate sky -touching fare, a situation that is complicated by the increasing stake of homes for international tourists going to Spain, and is looking for housing for students.
Spain’s deteriorating housing crisis has already staged a frequent protests in Canary Islands, Barcelona and Madrid.
Local people contribute to shortage
Hastacion.com, such as Thesis Days, Internet platforms, also sell small living spaces to investors. Spanish property startup allows users to buy instead of rent – rather than rent in a shared property as an alternative investment and living option.
Union Syndicateo de Insilinas de Madrid of Madrid tenants, practice for “rare speculation” of fuel by tourism and investment funds. The group has estimated that 47 million people are currently standing vacant in the country of 47 million people and 400,000 holiday fare in the country.
But the lack of housing is not just due to external demand. Local people are also contributing to this. According to the Spanish National Statistics Office INE, more than 2.5 million houses in Spain are used only sometimes, many of them are considered with second or third residences – often for holidays, and rarely others are rented.
Private investors and hedge funds are less reluctant to rent. In the first quarter of 2025, according to data compiled by Real Estate Platform Idealista, short-term lease, not counting of tourist rental, increased by 14% of the rental market or 25% from the previous year.
The forum reported the biggest increase of short -term fare in cities such as Bilbao (36%), Elikante (33%), Barcelona (29%), and Madrid (23%).
In May, the Spanish Ministry made headlines for consumer rights, when a short -term fare platform was ordered to remove about 66,000 without listing. Spanish Housing and Urban Planning Minister Isabel Rodrigues are advancing a bill that will require holidays to pay 21% VAT on an apartment rent – double the rate for hotel styles.
But tenant groups such as Syndicatos de Inkwilinas say that this is almost not enough.
Housing bounce with social results
Similar to the 2008 financial crisis, Spain’s real estate market is showing symptoms of overheating again.
According to data from the US-based investment firm MD MD Capital, the average of € 138,000 in 2014 was € 178.700. In places like Balaric islands, prices have exceeded double.
Tim Varth, a real estate advocate located in Palma, says a rapid increase in prices essentially leads to protests from local residents. ” He told DW that the fare in Spain should again be made more attractive with “legal and tax protection for both sides”.
But he accepts the intense social challenge in the fact that the average wage in the last decade is slightly more than 23%, while property prices have been shot at 29% in the same time period.
In 2024, according to the Economic and Social-Public Information platform Datosmacro, Spain had average monthly gross salary € 2.642. A simple 80-class meter apartment now costs € 1.100 per month to rent, as the cost of rent for a similar apartment in major cities like Madrid or Barcelona from the real estate portal photocasa show is between € 1.400 and € 1,500.
Unlike the discovery of people living in cities such as Paris or London, Spanish inhabitants do not get their salaries to offset high housing costs.
Many tourists, very low social housing
Every year, some 90 million international tourists visit Spain. Many remote workers have established a residence in Canary Islands and Barcelona, while students from all over the world come to 90 universities and dozens of business schools in the country.
Alone in the 2024/2025 academic year, more than 118,000 students came to Spain under the exchange program of European Union students. However, there is a lack of public housing publicly funded in Spain, and there is no financial assistance from the state equivalent to the BAFOG aid program of Germany for low -income house hold students.
This is why Spanish citizens leave their parents’ house after the age of 30, as showing official figures. In Germany, the average age is 24.
In addition, the public house is rare, with only 14.370 state sponsored units built in 2024.
A spokesperson said that Madrid’s tenant lobby, Mauhile, has threatened to increase public protests if the government does not take strong action: “We raise their voices to recover our voice or rent tourists,” a spokesman said.
This article was original in German.
