Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of central Madrid on Sunday, May 24 to protest soaring rents, rising property prices, and Spain’s worsening housing shortage, calling on the government to take faster and stronger action.
The march, organizedd by the Madrid Tenants’ Union under the slogan “Housing costs us our lives. Lower rents,” was also supported by Spain’s two largest trade unions, CCOO and UGT.
Protesters walked through Madrid chanting slogans and waving banners denouncing the country’s escalating housing crisis.
Organizers claimed that more than 100,000 people attended the demonstration, while government officials estimated the turnout at around 23,000.
Housing has become one of the most pressing political issues in Spain for the past few years now, as a rising demand caused by tourism and immigration-driven population growth has collided with a limited supply of affordable and public housing.
According to Spain’s central bank, the number of newly created households outpaced housing construction between 2021 and 2025, resulting in a national shortfall of roughly 700,000 homes.
One of the protesters’ main demands is a tougher crackdown on tourist accommodation and short-term holiday rentals. During Spain’s tourism boom, holiday apartments spread rapidly across city centers and grew faster than the hotel sector. Many residents argue that the expansion of tourist rentals has significantly driven up both rents and property prices, making housing increasingly inaccessible for locals.
As pressure grows, authorities across Spain have begun tightening regulations on holiday rentals in an effort to preserve housing availability for permanent residents.
Data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat also showed that housing costs rose by nearly 13% year-on-year in 2025.
Furthermore, average rents across Spain have doubled over the past decade, according to the property website Idealista, increasing far more rapidly than salaries. As a result, demonstrators who spoke out described the situation as financially impossible. One protestor, Nuria Nadim, who is a 32-year-old cultural programmer, said she spends around 70% of her income on rent and still depends on financial support from her family.
Before the march began, CCOO secretary-general Unai Sordo criticized the government’s pace of reform, saying that although some housing measures were heading in the right direction, progress was happening “at a snail’s pace” while the crisis itself was worsening rapidly.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, whose government faces a general election in 2027, has recently introduced several initiatives aimed at easing the crisis. In February, Sánchez unveiled a new public investment fund worth €120 billion, intended to help address the country’s long-running housing problems. More recently, the government approved a separate €7 billion plan to expand public housing construction over the next four years, while also providing support for younger renters and first-time homebuyers.
However, a separate proposal to freeze rent increases failed to pass through the legislature.
