🚨 Is Spain's housing crisis a "national emergency"?
The Banco de España is sending up warning flares. But the cure could be worse than the disease.
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We have the diagnosis, but you may not like the cure.
Spain's central bank is getting worried about the housing market. Like, seriously worried. After warning in its most recent annual report that the country has a housing deficit of about 750,000 units and that about 3.3% of the country's total housing stock (some 900,000 homes), are either owned by foreign non-residents or used as tourist rentals (i.e. not available for locals), bank governor José Luis Escrivá appeared in parliament and asked legislators to address the housing issue as something really, really important — specifically, as a “national emergency.”
That sounds…serious. But what does that actually mean? And more importantly, what would the bank, or the government, do to try to fix the situation?
That's where things get tricky. “We are talking about intrusive measures,” Escrivá warned the MPs — ones that could generate unintended consequences, like worsening access to housing for many. “We see it as a dilemma, a trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness,” the bank boss added. “We are studying it, and we will make decisions based on all the evidence.”
That sounds like a good idea, considering what has happened since the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez passed the housing law of 2023, which was meant to increase the supply of affordable housing but has done pretty much everything but.
Let's dive in:
