The 62-year-old pensioner realized he mightn’t afford the high rents in the Spanish capital when he moved there to undergo cancer treatment.
“Today I will sleep like a bird,” he declared.
Carrillo is one of a growing number of Spaniards who realize they are unable to pay the high rents, at a time when there is a shortage of social housing and regulations that discourage long-term leases.
The situation has been exacerbated by the boom in short-term rentals for tourists via platforms, which has sparked a wave of protests across Spain in recent weeks.
The number of homeless people has risen by 24% since 2012 to 28,000 people, according to official figures, while, based on a Bank of Spain report, around 45% of people living in rented accommodation are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The largest percentage in Europe.
The number of homeless people has risen significantly in Europe over the past decade, the European Commission says, but the extent of the problem in Spain is hidden by the large number of young people living with their parents.
More than 60% of young people between the ages of 18 and 34 live at home. Moreover, from 2008 to 2022 Spain had the fastest growing number of young people living with their parents among major European economies. In the country, the percentage of social housing reaches only 1.5% of all housing, while the European average is 9%.
Competition for houses to rent is fierce: regarding 40 people respond to every ad posted in Madrid, according to the home-finding website Idealista.
Spain’s current government plan will add 184,000 social housing units over the next few years. Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in May that he would like the country’s share of social housing to reach the European average by the end of his term in 2027. But the Bank of Spain estimates that reaching that goal would require approximately 1.5 million additional homes.
Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said Tuesday that the government is working on a new plan to meet Sanchez’s pledge.
They fill the gap
To fill the gap left by the state, charitable organizations are turning to private funds.
The apartment given to Karias is owned by Techo, a social investment fund that offers rental homes to charities that help the homeless.
Techo has around 230 apartments and works with 50 non-governmental organizations, which charge rents 30% lower than market rents.
Another charity, Hogar Si, rents 400 apartments to homeless people.
In addition, large cities such as Madrid are also facing internal migration, from the countryside to urban centers where there are more job opportunities, according to Diego Lothano, president and CEO of the Spanish capital’s housing agency.
In Madrid, 48,000 people are on a waiting list for social housing, he pointed out, and the city authorities are working to triple social housing to 15,000 by 2030. But Lothano admits that even this will not be addressed. the demand.
He also criticized recent legislation aimed at protecting tenants’ rights by allowing vulnerable people to stay in their rented home without paying rent for up to two years, as he believes it is pushing landlords away from long-term leases.
Landlords are asking for rent guarantees, which the poorest cannot afford, according to three NGOs.
Others turn to the more lucrative short-term rental market, where the same regulations do not apply. The supply of long-term rentals has fallen by 15% over a year, while short-term rentals, mainly for tourists, were up 56% year-on-year in March, according to Idealista.
Pensioner Carmen Cajamarza, 67, received a letter asking her to leave within a month of the flat she was renting in Madrid following the building she had lived in for 25 years was sold to an Argentine investment fund, which is renovating it to rent it out to tourists.
Cajamarca has announced that he will leave Madrid. “It’s only for tourists (…) and the people who have always lived here, where will they go?”, he wondered.
The crisis is so great that Spanish cities are trying to limit short-term rental properties to tourists.
In Cádiz, Eva Orihuela joined a local movement to ban rentals to tourists following her 88-year-old mother Maria was evicted. Fortunately in her case a local football club bought her house and allowed her to stay there at the same rent.
Orihuela was relieved, but “there are many other Marias,” he stressed.
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