A good part of the problems with access to housing originated with the financial and real estate crisis of 2008. At that time, with the collapse of part of the banking system and the construction sector, home purchase transactions collapsed and were replaced by rent, as detailed in a report published today by the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona.
This double effect triggered the rental prices that remain the same today, more than 15 years later. While in 2005 there were around 160,000 home purchase transactions in Catalonia, in 2008 the figure was reduced by two thirds. Exactly the opposite of rental, which went from around 50,000 transactions in that period to almost triple that number in a few years.
According to the Chamber, "the structural change is explained, in part, by the sharp increase in job insecurity in certain social groups since 2008, such as the foreign population, low-income people and young people."
The director of the Chamber's studies service, Joan Ramon Rovira, has warned that problems with access to housing can put the proper functioning of the welfare state at risk. In the economist's opinion, the most affected are young people.
Among the proposals for improvement that the Chamber of Barcelona has put on the table, the most notable is to increase the rental supply and improve public aid to the groups with the most needs.
