Catalonia’s renting realities - when laws fall short

Finding affordable housing has long been a problem in Catalonia and Spain, and in March, the Spanish government introduced a reference index for rent prices to keep them from rising. But the new rent cap created loopholes and had the opposite effect of increasing prices on short-term leases, while long-term housing became even harder to find. In response, the Catalan government rushed through regulations but failed to garner the support to make it a permanent law. Cillian Shields and Ona Van Dyck join Lea Beliaeva Bander to explain the different housing laws and highlight the huge gap between the law and reality. We hear from Barcelona real estate agent Tine Mathiessen, and Carme Arcarazo of the Catalan Tenants’ Union, as well as the experiences of Catalan renters. The Catalan phrase of the week is ‘- Què hem de fer? Vendre la casa i anar de lloguer’, which means “What should we do? Sell the house and go rent” is a rhyming answer to a question you don’t know the answer to.