Zoë Dahse
ACCESS to housing has proved to be very difficult for many Spanish people in recent years, particularly in the country’s main cities. Rental prices are on an unstoppable rise.
At the same time, there have been an increase in the protests by citizens for the right to property, but thus far they have achieved little effect. The problem primarily affects young people and the middle class.
According to BBC Mundo, the answer as to why Spain has taken such an extreme hit may be found when looking at the role foreign buyers have played in recent years, who have bet on the Spanish real estate market.
READ MORE: Spain’s Airbnb crisis exposed: One in three homes in tourist hotspots now short-lets
Large US investment fund firms such as Blackstone and Goldman Sachs made a move on Spain when access to housing was only just starting to become a problem.
Thousands of houses and apartments have become tourist and seasonal apartments in the last few years for foreign visitors to stay in.
Spain has also been a major recipient of immigration in recent years, with 1.2 million more foreign residents since 2022.
Residents from abroad have contributed to an 84% increase in the population in the last three years, which in turn has contributed to the increase in the demand for housing.
Economist Raymond Torres told BBC Mundo that “the market in Spain is characterized by a very strong demand, which makes it very attractive for investors from other places who are sure that they will be able to sell the property they have acquired and that prices are rising year after year”.
In the first quarter of 2025 house prices rose by 12.2%, which according to the National Statistics Institute was the largest increase in 18 years.
Data from the Spanish government also showed that in 2023 alone, around 27,000 houses and apartments in Spain were bought by non-residents from outside the European Union.
Spain was hit hard by the 2008 global financial crisis, following the bursting of its 1990s real estate bubble.
As a result, foreign capital and large US funds were able to acquire large portfolios of homes at reduced prices which rose in price as the country recovered.
It is difficult to give an exact overall figure of how many properties the US funds actually own in Spain. BBC Mundo has reported that Blackstone’s residential portfolio comprises 22,000 properties across many different local subsidies.
This makes Blackstone the second largest landlord in Spain, with some 19,600 rented properties, the majority of which are in Madrid. CaixaBank also topped the list of landlords of rental properties.
Currently more than 9% of homes rented in Spain are owned by large private landlords. As housing continues to be a problem in Spain foreign homeowners as well as short.term tourist rentals continue to be blamed as the cause.
This vocal criticism includes Pedro Sanchez, criticising the fact that the buyers of the 27,000 houses and apartments bought by non-residents of the European Union in 2023 “did it, not to live in them, not for their relatives to live in, they did it mainly to speculate, to make money with them” in January, when he announced a series of government initiatives to deal with Spain’s current housing crisis.
BBC Mundo also added that Pablo Perez, of the Madrid Tenants Union, said that over the last few years people who were renting houses owned by Blackstone and other big funds in the outskirts of Madrid had seen their rental agreements double at the end of the initial period.
Raymond Torres added that “foreign funds are not responsible for the housing shortage problem; what happens is that they benefit from it.”
The lack of available housing therefore contributes to this problem. After the real estate bubble burst, housing construction in Spain was halted, and only in recent years has begun to pick up again, albeit with “not enough land to build on”, and properties being built that are ultimately not designed for social housing, further exacerbating the problem. In Spain less than 2.5% of homes are for social housing.
As a result, the Spanish population is increasingly demanding regulatory changes to be able to create a more efficient market, through more public investment and coordinated policies.
READ MORE: Bubble alert: Property prices in the Balearics shoot up another 15%
Click here to read more Other News from The Olive Press.
“Residents from abroad have contributed to an 84% increase in the population in the last three years,….”
Of what population? Non Spanish I guess, certainly not of Spain! Big difference!
“Currently more than 9% of homes rented in Spain are owned by large private landlords.”
The implication is that these “large private landlords” are foreign, otherwise you would notmention them!
Since 2009 and Lehmann Brothers, up until around 4 years ago, in most parts of the property prices have declined. During the same period there has, understandably, been a dearth of investment in new affordable housing!. The market had been allowed to find its own levels of pricing, which now, all of sudden is reaching new highs. Foreign investors, particularly large investment companies , have been canny in selecting underpriced properties, usually as the result of them being repossessions on the books of Spanish banks, who were all too happy to rid themselves of these assets. So the question should be: how come it took foreign investment companies to recognise the opportunity? Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. I know that is an inappropriate comment to anyone unable to rent or buy a property, who have been losers in this story, but don’t blame foreigners when if an adequate supply of affordable housing had been built, this probably would not have happened, or at least not to the extent it has.