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Tenant organizing halts evictions and saves homes from speculation

The housing affordability crisis in Spain has become one of the main sources of social tension over the past decade. With the constant rise in rental prices and the increase in speculative practices by large property holders, collective tenant organizing has emerged as a key tool to combat abuses in the housing market. Housing unions have become a decisive actor in defending the right to decent housing, achieving victories such as stopping evictions and recovering homes for the public housing stock.

Inflation squeezing households

The scale of the structural problem is evident in the most recent data. According to a report by the Confederal Socioeconomic Office of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), inflation affecting households living in rental housing reached 4.7% in 2025, almost double the official Consumer Price Index (CPI), which stood at 2.7%. Since January 2019, prices for tenants have accumulated an increase of 31%, six points above the 25% recorded by the general index.

This gap translates into a loss of purchasing power affecting 8.4 million people. Real wages for these households have fallen by 6.9% since 2019, with a greater impact on vulnerable groups: 63% of households of non-EU migrant origin live in rental housing.

The emergence of an organized movement

Faced with this situation, tenant unions have experienced strong growth. In Catalonia, the Sindicat de Llogateres has more than 5,800 members and manages dozens of buildings in struggle. Funding is largely based on membership fees, ensuring economic independence.

In October 2025, the Confederation of Tenant Unions was established, bringing together organizations from multiple territories and enabling coordination at the state level.

Rent strikes as a pressure tool

One of the most effective tools deployed by these organizations is the rent strike, which consists of collectively suspending rent payments to force negotiations with large property owners and investment funds.

The most notable milestone of this strategy took place in Catalonia. On April 1, 2025, a total of 71 families living in public housing in Sentmenat, Sitges, Barcelona, Banyoles and Palau-solità i Plegamans launched a rent strike against the intention of the real estate branch of Fundació La Caixa to privatize their homes. For nine months, the families maintained the strike and managed to raise €257,631.73 in a shared resistance fund.

The outcome exceeded expectations. On November 26, 2025, the president of the Government of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, announced the purchase by the Institut Català del Sòl (Incasòl) of more than one thousand homes owned by InmoCriteria, the real estate company linked to CriteriaCaixa. The acquisition, which involved an outlay of €87.2 million, prevented these homes (originally built on public land and with public funding) from being privatized and sold at market prices after the twenty-year protection period expired. Each home was acquired at an average price of €82,900, far below current market prices.

Resistance against vulture funds

Collective organization is also producing results against large funds. In Madrid, around one hundred households on partial rent strike against the Nestar-Azora fund achieved an initial major legal victory: a court declared several abusive contract clauses illegal, forcing the return of improperly charged amounts.

The resistance movement spread across the country. The resistance fund campaign promoted by the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya, the Sindicato de Inquilinas de Madrid and Fundació Coop57 raised €102,784 through 943 solidarity contributions. These funds are used to guarantee legal and financial support for families participating in rent strikes, a crucial resource in a context where large real estate companies respond with lawsuits for non-payment.

Strategic alliances for long-term solutions

Beyond resistance, housing unions are exploring alternative ways to secure the right to housing in the long term. A notable case is that of Barcelona, where a tenant avoided eviction thanks to a pioneering solution resulting from an agreement between the Sindicato de Inquilinas and the housing cooperative Sostre Cívic. The cooperative purchased the home, financed through a loan from the Institut Català de Finances subsidized by the Catalan Housing Agency. The tenant became a member of the cooperative and will pay a lifelong usage right. After 75 years, the property will be permanently incorporated into the public rental housing stock.

Union representatives stressed that this case “demonstrates that real alternatives to speculation exist: collective, community-based and effective”, and emphasized that the purchase is intended as a replicable strategy rather than an isolated case.

New horizons of mobilization

In April 2026, the Confederation of Tenant Unions announced the launch of a campaign to initiate the first nationwide rent strike, targeting the real estate company “Alquiler Seguro”, which it accuses of maintaining “systematic and structural practices contrary to the law”. The company manages nearly 30,000 homes across the country and faces a €3.6 million sanction from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, still pending final resolution.

Tenants’ demands include the return of illegal fees, the end of imposed insurance and utility contracts with affiliated companies, and the elimination of abusive charges such as those required simply to visit a property.

At the same time, the Sindicato de Inquilinas de Cataluña called for civil disobedience through the #EnsQuedem (#WeStay) campaign, urging people not to leave their homes when rental contracts expire and to continue paying rent until a negotiated solution is reached. This strategy becomes especially relevant given that nearly 119,000 rental contracts signed five years earlier are expected to expire in Catalonia in 2026, a situation described by the union as a “perfect storm”.

Legislative impact and future outlook

Union pressure is also having legislative effects. In December 2025, the Parliament of Catalonia approved a law regulating short-term and room rentals, a long-standing demand of the tenant movement. The regulation establishes that short-term rentals are limited to recreational, holiday and tourist uses, and sets that the sum of room rents in a dwelling cannot exceed the cap established for the total rent of the property.

Collective organization has proven to be the most effective tool to curb abuses in the housing market. The victories achieved (from stopping evictions to recovering homes for public housing, including the judicial annulment of abusive clauses) show that coordinated tenant action can challenge investment funds and large property holders. In a context of rising inflation and declining purchasing power, the consolidation of housing unions as key social actors in Spain appears to be an undeniable reality.

Sources

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