Renovation of the housing stock. Cartoon of 21/09/2024 in CTXT
Housing is an eternal problem that no government seems to want to solve. And it is so difficult to solve that you just have to want to.
In 2023, the price of housing increased by 4%. It has been rising for ten years, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
In the second quarter of 2024, housing prices rose by 5.7% in Spain, marking the highest price since mid-2009.
These so-called progressive governments only make gestures and announcements for the sake of show, purely cosmetic electioneering rhetoric to avoid really tackling a scourge that has been plaguing one generation and the next with no sign of improvement. They have even gone so far as to claim that they have banned evictions.
Fair rent. Cartoon of 20/03/2021 in CTXT
And I don't think that at this stage of the film I need to convince anyone of the government's inaction on housing. Suffice it to recall the statement made by the former minister of development and then transport minister of the current government until he was dismissed, for some for a possible link to the Koldo case.
"Housing is a right, but it is also a market good".
José Luis Ábalos, February 2021
The latest shameful passage that reinforces the theory that they never intend to intervene effectively in the cave of speculators and thieves that the property market has become is the recommendation of Isabel Rodríguez, the housing minister, who appeals to the solidarity of landlords to lower rents. If we kneel down a little before landlords, professional rentiers and vulture fund managers, perhaps they will take pity on us.
And we laughed at the peperos for praying to saints and virgins to intervene in the recovery of the economy or to implore them for the much needed rains for the harvests.
Keep it up, we'll see you on the streets.
