Housing activists call new demonstration against 'exorbitant' rent prices on April 5

Several Tenants' Unions across Spain are calling for a new massive demonstration to "take on the streets" on Saturday, April 5, to urge for "rent prices to be lowered" and to "stop speculating with the housing market."

The protest, which will be held at 6 p.m. on Plaça Espanya in Barcelona, will also occur in other cities nationwide.

The Tenants' Union in the Catalan capital hopes to welcome "thousands of people" from different parts of Catalonia.

Organizers believe that "exorbitant" rent prices are the "first cause of impoverishment of the working class and a stop to access housing." Thus, they call for a 50% price reduction as current prices are "unsustainable and are drowning millions of people."

Among their other demands, they are pushing for long-term rent contracts so people can "build a life. " They also want to recover empty houses and tourist accommodations and end "speculative buying," as "housing cannot be an investment."

"It is necessary to increase public housing stocks, but not massively building but returning properties from the SAREB to the market and to expropriate," organizers add.

The SAREB is considered the Spanish government's bad bank. It was created to manage all high-risk assets transferred from nationalized financial institutions during the economic crisis.

The demonstration's slogan is, "Let's reduce rent prices and end the housing business."

In late November, the Tenants' Union held a march in Barcelona that welcomed 22,000 people, according to local police, and over 170,000 people, according to organizers.