Podemos' housing guru who says that worrying about squatters is only for fascists? He should come round mine! We have a window we can't open because a family that squatted another flat in our building never, ever cleans it and it smells. They have hijacked a connection to the electricity, which raises the risk of power cuts and fires for the whole building. They also regularly break the front door to the building.
Let me tell you a story... Podemos used to be in the local council where I live. They sent someone young and naive round to our community meeting to lecture the neighbours on squatters' rights. I imagine they did this consistently throughout Spain. It must have been about 2015, when the party was getting about one vote in five. I remember thinking that its pro-squatting stance would come back and hurt it badly. Fast-forward back to 2025 and the polls put the party on just above 5%. That went well!
If I may, I’d like to point out — with the utmost respect — that your critique leans on an ad hominem fallacy, focusing on the presumed intentions or background of the author rather than engaging with the substance of the argument.
I would kindly reiterate my suggestion to read the book before forming a definitive judgment on its content. The argument it puts forward is grounded in a broad and rigorous analysis, drawing extensively from neoliberal theorists and economists — which makes familiarity with its full scope essential for a meaningful debate.
P.S. A gentle note of clarification: you appear to conflate Podemos and Comuns. While they certainly operate in overlapping political spaces and share some ideological ground, they are distinct parties, with their own leadership, structures, and internal dynamics. I say this with appreciation for your perspective — but also with the awareness that, having lived in Barcelona since 2008 and closely followed local politics, this distinction is of course familiar to me.
Forgive me, but I have a long list of books to read and the thoughts of a hard-left anthropologist on how to completely redesign the economy from scratch don't look tremendously appealing to me, except maybe for the comedy value.
Sadly, I think this is pie-in-the-sky stuff. There around 28m homes in Spain. If the government tried to buy half of them, say, at an average price of €170,000 (give or take a bit), it would cost almost €2.4 trillion. Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) is €1.6 trillion. Spending 1.5x GDP on taking the market out of the housing market, is, of course, completely mad.
I think we can safely file this under Marxist / post-Marxist academics posing as gurus for a new society without ever pausing to think about logistics, unintended consequences, precedents or incentives. Sorry!
Excellent article. I wrote the following on my blog recently as lots of people blame foreigners and as you say digital nomads.
“Spoke to a teacher yesterday about the Spanish housing crisis and here is one issue never spoken of.
They have 40 colleagues at the school
20 have a second home.
5 have three or more properties.
15 live at home with mum and dad (or shared rentals)
All Spanish. The Spanish buy real estate as investments, not shares or other stuff.
They affect the ability of their colleagues to buy their own place of course.
And here’s the kicker. Many are Vox supporters (yeah teachers can be dumb too) and they blame immigrants for the problems of the housing market because of course they do
Oh, and of the 20 with second homes half of them at least rent them out only on Airbnb, not to their colleagues for example as that investment "doesn’t pay" (comparatively)”
I think you should read El segrest de l'habitatge by Jaime Palomera, which made a great analisis of the real estate system in Spain.
Podemos' housing guru who says that worrying about squatters is only for fascists? He should come round mine! We have a window we can't open because a family that squatted another flat in our building never, ever cleans it and it smells. They have hijacked a connection to the electricity, which raises the risk of power cuts and fires for the whole building. They also regularly break the front door to the building.
Let me tell you a story... Podemos used to be in the local council where I live. They sent someone young and naive round to our community meeting to lecture the neighbours on squatters' rights. I imagine they did this consistently throughout Spain. It must have been about 2015, when the party was getting about one vote in five. I remember thinking that its pro-squatting stance would come back and hurt it badly. Fast-forward back to 2025 and the polls put the party on just above 5%. That went well!
If I may, I’d like to point out — with the utmost respect — that your critique leans on an ad hominem fallacy, focusing on the presumed intentions or background of the author rather than engaging with the substance of the argument.
I would kindly reiterate my suggestion to read the book before forming a definitive judgment on its content. The argument it puts forward is grounded in a broad and rigorous analysis, drawing extensively from neoliberal theorists and economists — which makes familiarity with its full scope essential for a meaningful debate.
P.S. A gentle note of clarification: you appear to conflate Podemos and Comuns. While they certainly operate in overlapping political spaces and share some ideological ground, they are distinct parties, with their own leadership, structures, and internal dynamics. I say this with appreciation for your perspective — but also with the awareness that, having lived in Barcelona since 2008 and closely followed local politics, this distinction is of course familiar to me.
Forgive me, but I have a long list of books to read and the thoughts of a hard-left anthropologist on how to completely redesign the economy from scratch don't look tremendously appealing to me, except maybe for the comedy value.
I read an interview with the author where he said that the solution would involve the government buying a whole bunch of houses, leasing them back to people, and not letting them make a profit when they move (https://www.eldiario.es/economia/jaime-palomera-chabolismo-visible-ahora-escondido-edificios-llama-coliving_128_12182484.html).
Sadly, I think this is pie-in-the-sky stuff. There around 28m homes in Spain. If the government tried to buy half of them, say, at an average price of €170,000 (give or take a bit), it would cost almost €2.4 trillion. Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) is €1.6 trillion. Spending 1.5x GDP on taking the market out of the housing market, is, of course, completely mad.
I think we can safely file this under Marxist / post-Marxist academics posing as gurus for a new society without ever pausing to think about logistics, unintended consequences, precedents or incentives. Sorry!
Excellent article. I wrote the following on my blog recently as lots of people blame foreigners and as you say digital nomads.
“Spoke to a teacher yesterday about the Spanish housing crisis and here is one issue never spoken of.
They have 40 colleagues at the school
20 have a second home.
5 have three or more properties.
15 live at home with mum and dad (or shared rentals)
All Spanish. The Spanish buy real estate as investments, not shares or other stuff.
They affect the ability of their colleagues to buy their own place of course.
And here’s the kicker. Many are Vox supporters (yeah teachers can be dumb too) and they blame immigrants for the problems of the housing market because of course they do
Oh, and of the 20 with second homes half of them at least rent them out only on Airbnb, not to their colleagues for example as that investment "doesn’t pay" (comparatively)”
The article was talking about the proposed 100% tax on property for foreigners https://valencia-property.com/new/2025/01/16/100-tax-on-buying-spanish-property-dont-panic/ A mad take by the government
Interesting article! Thanks for sharing.