Pierina Nicuray, a 21-year-old university graduate, has spent a week camped out in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square. Like many of the hundreds of others who have pitched their tents here to protest at Spain's housing crisis, she has no doubts when it comes to diagnosing the cause. "It's the same problem as always," she says.
"A lack of homes." She adds: "Landlords are taking advantage of the situation to raise rentals, and then there's also Airbnb." Jorge Moreno, a 19-year-old film-dubbing student who has also been living in a tent here in central Madrid for the last few days, agrees. "There are so many homes standing empty because they have been bought by vulture funds and investment funds which hike up the rent of people living in properties until they get rid of them," says Jorge, who lives with his mother and fears it will be a long time before he can afford a home of his own. "They've been making a business of housing for a long time," he adds.
"But it's an abusive business which stops Spaniards from being able to live in a decent home." His and Pierina's diagnoses are frequently voiced by fellow protesters, ordinary Spaniards and even the Spanish government. On presenting a recent package of emergency measures to tackle the housing problem, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was legislating "against those who consider housing just another object on the market with which to speculate". Those reforms were rejected by Congress, prompting Sánchez to call a snap election next month.
Nicuray and Moreno can point to the single case that sparked the current Spanish housing protest movement as proof that profit-driven practices are at the heart of the crisis: the 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home after the investment firm that had bought it tried to persuade her to leave, then sharply increased her rent, which she was unable to pay. Although the social backlash that followed caused the company to invite Abascal to return to her old home, she never did, dying in hospital on Wednesday. Many others have their own stories of struggling with a soaring rental market.
Carmen Pérez is a retired widow, originally from Ecuador, who has been living in Spain for 17 years. When she arrived, housing was relatively cheap and accessible, but - as costs have risen - she has been forced to move in with her daughter and son-in-law as she looks for somewhere affordable to rent. "When a property is listed to rent, there's always a long waiting list," she says.
"And the rent is always too high for me. All of this has affected my health - I've got depression, I don't have any stability or security." Spain has seen an average rise in rental costs of 84% over the last 10 years, according to property outlet Idealista. In the centre of the southern city of Málaga, the increase has been 113 %, and, in Marbella - just under 150%.
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