Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday to express their discontent with the situation with the sharp rise in rental prices, Spanish media reported.
The average price for rent in Spain over the past 10 years has doubled. In Barcelona and Madrid, the growth of prices for rent and purchase of property is even higher. Experts note that people’s incomes do not keep up with rising prices, especially among young people in a country with high unemployment.
Residents of Barcelona blame the high prices on the million tourists who come to Spain and the capital of Catalonia every year. Barcelona City Hall has promised to eliminate 10,000 tourist apartments with short-term rental permits by 2028.
In October, many thousands of protests over rising housing prices took place in Madrid. The scale of the current protests against rising housing prices has already been compared to the mass demonstrations in support of independence of Catalonia, which swept Spain in the past decade.
Earlier in November, tens of thousands of residents of Spanish Valencia took part in anti-government demonstrations in connection with the consequences of floods. The demonstrations were accompanied by clashes between protesters and police. As a result of the disaster in the south and east of Spain killed more than 220 people.
