PODCAST: Catalonia’s renting realities - when laws fall short

Finding affordable housing has become one of the biggest problems in major cities around the world, and Catalonia and Spain are unfortunately no different.

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To combat the problem, the Spanish government introduced a reference index for rental prices in March 2024 to keep the prices from rising uncontrollably. 

While the idea was largely welcomed, it turns out that the new rent cap has created loopholes and had the opposite effect with property owners increasingly opting for short-term leases that are exempt from the rent cap, while long-term housing has become even harder to find. 

In response, the Catalan government rushed through new regulations to, in the words of sitting Territorial Minister Ester Capella, “find a way to close the loopholes”, but it failed to garner the necessary support to make it a permanent law - so are we back to square one?

Cillian Shields and Ona Van Dyck join Lea Beliaeva Bander to talk about what the Spanish and Catalan housing laws are all about and also to highlight the huge gap between the law and the reality of renters in a market that many describe as exploitative. 

We hear different perspectives from Barcelona real estate agent Tine Mathiessen, and Carme Arcarazo of the Catalan Tenants’ Union, as well as the experiences of Catalan renters trying to find long-term housing.

The Catalan phrase of the week is ‘- Què hem de fer? Vendre la casa i anar de lloguer’, which literally means “What should we do? Sell the house and go rent,” is a rhyming answer to a question you don’t know the answer to.   

Get in touch with the podcast team: fillingthesink@acn.cat.

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