Hundreds of demonstrators in Madrid demanded decent housing prices
In Madrid hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to demand that rents and house rentals should not be treated as a business, because of the unaffordable prices for the average worker. teleSUR
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00:00In Madrid, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand that housing not be treated as a business,
00:06calling for an end to big landlords and to push for the regulation of tourist rentals. Let's see.
00:13Thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid to demand that housing is a right and not a business.
00:19Young people, one of the groups most affected by the real estate crisis,
00:24led this historic demonstration, which above all seeks to facilitate access to fair housing.
00:34Nowadays, it is clear that any construction that has to be done has to be public housing or has to be protected,
00:41obviously, but what we are talking about is that the solution is no longer to build more or less.
00:47What we have to do is to take all the housing that exists here,
00:51empty homes, tourist flats, investment funds, and turn them into public housing stock.
00:57Therefore, we ask the government, but also society, not to let ourselves be fooled that this is not about supply and demand.
01:05Housing is not a market.
01:11The demonstration not only targeted private landlords, but also the authorities.
01:18Demonstrators demanded the resignation of Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez,
01:23accusing her of failing to take advantage of opportunities to address the crisis.
01:32As a matter of urgency,
01:34evictions should be stopped and rents should be lowered. That's what we need to do.
01:38But then we need to establish a plan of long-term structural measures that will take decades,
01:44that will cost a lot of money, that will cost a lot of changes that many people will not like, but that are very necessary.
01:51Just as with climate change, we all have to do our part to stop it.
01:59This mobilization marks a turning point in the housing debate in Spain.
02:04Citizen pressure could be the catalyst needed to drive significant changes in housing policies at the national level.
02:14In the case of the house where I live,
02:17it is in a building built with public funds that was not sold to the inhabitants who lived there,
02:22but to investment funds at a lower price and who started to exploit the inhabitants with their policies of raising rents,
02:29harassing the residents to leave.
02:35This demonstration in Madrid is not an isolated case.
02:39Cities such as Barcelona,
02:42Valencia and Málaga have seen or will see similar protests in the coming weeks,
02:47evidencing that the housing crisis is a national problem that requires urgent and coordinated solutions.
02:54The final message of this mobilization is clear.
02:58Housing is a fundamental right, not a mere market product.