Shorouk Express
Spain is desperately trying to solve its housing crisis by introducing all kinds of measures, from rent caps and limiting non-EU non-resident foreigners from buying properties to offer incentives for landlords who reduce their rent.
LISTED: Spain’s 12 new measures to combat the housing crisis
One of the obvious solutions is to build more affordable homes. The Bank of Spain recently calculated that the country is lacking 500,000 homes, most of which should be public.
A little-known fact is that subsequent Spanish governments from 1982 until 2023 (both right and left-wing) allowed 2.7 million public housing units to be bought up by private firms, or made it possible for private construction companies to first build public housing only for it to then fall into their hands.
Sánchez’s government is now trying to address this fallacy that’s made Spain the EU country with the lowest rate of public housing, with only 1.3 units for every 100 inhabitants.
An avoidable paradox has emerged though – most of the new homes being built are located in areas where people don’t want to live, thus doing little to solve Spain’s main housing shortages.
A recent report from Spain’s Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility shows that between May and November 2024 Madrid, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands were the four of the areas with the greatest housing deficit.
In these sought-after cities and regions construction has ground to a halt, or experienced minimal increases in building or even decreases.
In Madrid, where it is estimated that 107,000 houses are needed to meet demand, construction has fallen by 1.47 percent.
In Barcelona, where there is a deficit of 85,000 homes, growth has only been 1.95 percent.
The situation is even more problematic in the Balearic and Canary Islands, with decreases of 11.44 percent and more than 20 percent, respectively.
The only province that has responded positively to the demand for housing is Seville, where the number of houses under construction grew by more than 30 percent during that seven-month period, to around 13,000 units.
READ ALSO: ‘Red tape takes longer than building homes in Spain’
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In Málaga there is a deficit of 15,000 homes but it’s estimated that more than 10,500 are sold annually to non-residents, and the rate of new builds has grown by a moderate 6.38 percent.
In Alicante on the Costa Blanca, with nearly 20,000 homes purchased annually by non-residents, there as been a growth of 9.21 percent.
In Valencia, which also suffering a lot in this housing crisis, construction has increased by 3.87 percent, but it’s still considered an insufficient percentage to meet demand according to the experts.
So if properties are not being built in the areas that need them the most, where is all this construction supposed to be happening?
The province of Palencia in Castilla y León has seen the most growth in new properties with an increase of more than 159 percent between May and November 2024.
But Palencia is one of the areas in so-called ‘Empty Spain’ which is suffering from depopulation, as there are fewer services and jobs, turning the problem into a vicious circle. In fact, sources show that this province north of Madrid lost 68 percent of its population between 1950 and 2022.
READ ALSO: The Spanish regions where the population has declined the most
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Other provinces where construction grew the most in 2024 were Almería by 92.3 percent, Zamora by 60.4 percent, Pontevedra by 59.9 percent, Huelva by 54.5 percent, Toledo by 45.7 percent and Ciudad Real by 44 percent.
Zamora in Castilla y León is also in ‘Empty Spain’ and is one of the least-densely populated places in the country with 15.85 inhabitants/km2, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Pontevedra is located in Galicia, another region which has been hit hard by depopulation. The province is home to dozens of abandoned villages.
Construction of new housing has remained almost constant in Spain, with an increase of 9 percent between May and November 2024, up to 126,761 units.
But it’s undeniable that the cities and regions with the biggest populations and demand for jobs should probably be the ones where most new homes are built.
This latest government data shows the complete opposite. It could be interpreted that this move could be a way to encourage Spaniards to move to underpopulated parts of the country.
However, there are already plenty of affordable homes available there, and without the infrastructure and opportunities to go with it, people will always migrate to the big cities.
READ ALSO: Foreigners give ‘Empty Spain’ a new lease of life
