Real estate market. Cartoon of 13/08/2023 in CTXT
No matter how much the different governments tell you that they are doing little things to solve the eternal problem of housing, none of those who call themselves social democrats are thinking of really standing up to the different mafias of the brick, mediation and credits that shape what they call the real estate "market".
The construction and promotion of public housing is nothing more than a promise that has been dragged out from campaign to campaign. Meanwhile, something as basic as housing continues to be allowed to remain a"market good". Just another product in the catalogue. This is the approach of the average ultra-capitalist: if you can't afford a roof over your head, fuck you.
And don't even think of suggesting structural and far-reaching changes to the ambiguous and empty "right to enjoy decent housing" in article 47 of our Constitution because you will be branded a dangerous communist, to say the least.
But since we live without fear here, I am still waiting for a government that will finally put an end to this shitty real estate "market" based on greed and speculation that only generates poverty and exclusion and turn housing into what it should be, a real universal right to which anyone can have access without having to spend more than half their life, health and almost their entire salary.
To hell with the real estate "market". It's intervened, it's forbidden, it's suspended as long as there is a single person who cannot afford a decent place to live.
Since 2013, the Emancipation Observatory of the General Youth Council of Spain(CJE) has been producing a sociological report analysing youth employment and housing. The report for the second half of 2022 is devastating.
Young people are emancipating at 30.3 years of age on average in Spain, the highest figure in the last twenty years. To rent alone, a young person would have to spend 83.7 per cent of their net annual salary and, as if this were not enough, one in five people under 30 with a job were in poverty or at risk of social exclusion.
Extract from the report:
why is it almost impossible to become emancipated in Spain?
Having a job is not enough to be able to afford housing in Spain. Although the average salary of a young person rose by 4.6% to 13,079.19 euros net per year (or 1,089.93 euros net per month), the price of rented housing rose by 7.55%. Thus, the average rent for a house was 912 euros. A young person would have to spend 83.7% of his or her salary. This, added to the 141 euros that the average cost of the supplies and services of a home (such as water, electricity, gas, etc.), would mean 1,053 euros per month, 96.6 per cent of their salary. In other words, they would only have 36.93 euros left to buy food, clothes and leisure, which is completely unaffordable.
One in five people under 30 with a job were in poverty or at risk of social exclusion. This phenomenon, that of young people who remain poor, even if they work, should be one of the priorities of the political class, since the impossibility of accessing conditions that allow them to live in a dignified and independent way not only causes material problems for young people, but also affects their mental health.
But don't think that these figures are bad because they could be worse. If we look at the different communities, we can find that a young person in the Canary Islands has to spend 99.4 per cent of his or her salary to pay rent.
According to INE data, rent is still 2.1% more expensive than a year ago, the highest level since 2009.
If renting is a mess, buying isn't much better either. The reforms on renting, for the moment, are yielding rather bad results. We don't know what the data will be in 2023 when they are analysed with Law 12/2023, of 24 May, "for the right to housing", which was published in the BOE in May, but for the moment the price is still on its own. It has risen by more than 10% in some ten capitals.
Second-hand housing has risen by 7n a year, placing the square metre above 2000 euros, that is what the companies of the speculative parasites that are dedicated to this "market" say (based on their own valuations) and that the media publish with joy inviting us to buy because it is again an "investment" always on the rise.
Between all of them they blow the bubble again and start all over again.
Related. Money as a gift
