Blanca Castro puts on a builder’s helmet before opening the door to her kitchen. Inside it, the ceiling has a large hole that is dripping water and it looks as if it could collapse at any moment.
Because the kitchen is unusable, Blanca has to wash her dishes in the bathtub, and she has improvised a cooking area with a gas camping stove in a corner of her living room.
Many of her fellow tenants in this apartment block near Madrid’s Atocha railway station have similar problems. They say the company that owns the building has stopped responding to requests for basic maintenance in recent months, since informing them that it will not renew their rental contracts.
“The current rental bubble is encouraging a lot of big owners to do what they are doing here,” says Blanca. “Which is to get rid of the current tenants who have been here a long time, in order to have short-term tourist flats, or simply to hike up the rent.”
Blanca and her fellow tenants have vowed to stay in the building despite what they see as efforts to push them out by the owners, who were not available for comment for this article.
The tenancy contracts last five years, during which time rent is fixed, but this area of central Madrid has seen housing costs soar in recent years.
“For another home like this [in this area], I’d have to pay double or more what I’m paying now,” says Blanca. “It’s not viable.”
She and her neighbours are among millions of Spaniards who are suffering the consequences of a housing crisis caused by spiralling rental costs.
While salaries have increased by around 20% over the past decade, the average rental in Spain has doubled during the same period. There has been an 11% increase over the last year alone, according to figures provided by property portal Idealista, and housing has become Spaniards’ biggest worry.
It’s also generating anger, with Spaniards taking to the streets to demand action from the authorities to make housing more affordable. On Saturday, 5 April thousands of people are expected to protest in Madrid and dozens of other cities.
