The city of Valencia has more than 800,000 inhabitants, but its housing supply is limited to 150 new construction homes for sale, while rental prices are among the three that have grown the most in recent years. In 2023 the capital received more than 2.3 million visitors and added almost 5.5 million overnight stays. Perhaps for this reason, the number of tourist apartments went from less than 6,000 registered at the end of 2023 to more than 10,000 offered at the beginning of 2024. This growth caused the Valencia City Council to approve a one-year moratorium on the granting of new licenses for the opening of housing for tourist use.
Thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in Valencia against the rise in housing prices, the “flooding” of tourist apartments and the destruction of the territory – 15,000 according to the Government Delegation and 50,000 according to the organizers – with a movement that denounces that the city is “for sale”. “Valencia is drowning” was the motto chosen for a march driven, fundamentally, by neighborhood groups in memory of the great flood that flooded the city 67 years ago and destroyed everything in its path.
The neighbors have demanded a decrease in the Valencian capital which, according to them, has lost its own and cultural identity “in favor of excessive construction and building, the disappearance of traditional commerce and the problems of pollution and coexistence”. “Every day our neighborhoods are stripped of their identity and touristification turns our streets into a decoration for tourists,” they denounced in a manifesto. “We need to decrease tourism,” they have claimed.
The platform on which the groups have joined denounces a commercialization of the city: “Everything is for sale,” they explain. “We no longer have houses to live in.”“, no shops to shop in, no spaces to live together,” they lament, meaning that these factors, among others, are causing the disappearance of neighborhoods. “We are a city, not a tourist destination,” read some banners as protesters jingled their keys.
The bulk of the protest was formed by the union of four columns arriving from the different cardinal points of the city, which made it difficult to estimate the number of participants. In any case, those who arrived first at the Town Hall square had to wait more than an hour until the last protesters entered the space. The march made its way through three of the most touristic squares in the city where, paradoxically and eloquently, it crossed paths with dozens of tourists who collected on their phones a striking demonstration banner, with a formation of a dozen police officers. nationals that cleared the way. The participants did not hesitate to stop and explain their complaints to those who asked: “It’s not that we don’t want tourists, what we don’t want is speculation,” argued a father who was walking with his son to a couple of foreigners.
Mass construction as a solution
The president of the Housing Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Fernando Cos-Gayón, calls the situation “critical”, as he points out in the quarterly report published by the entity. “We have been warning about this for six years,” says Cos-Gayón, who is clear about the solution, although he admits that it is not in the short term: “The massive construction of housing is urgent, both in ownership and rental regimes, but with a clear focus on public housing because the current demand is made up of 90% by citizens with low incomes,” he explains and warns that, what is now a housing problem , it can become a social problem and lead to the uprising of settlements. “If we don’t have houses, we will occupy the squares,” was one of the most chanted slogans yesterday.
The Observatory carried out a study on the possibilities of public land (of all administrations) that the city of Valencia has. “2,500 public homes could be built, which would cause a 30% reduction in the price.”
The president of the Real Estate Association of the Valencian Community, Nora García, agrees with the solution that, as both highlight, those who have possibilities and want to buy are people, in many cases, who are now occupying rental homes that would free .
However, at the end of the demonstration, one of the platform’s spokespersons, María Alandes, pointed out that the solution is not to build more but to release empty homes for rent, which, she said, amount to more than 57,000 in the city of Valencia. “In the center alone, 40% of the housing is empty and in some points, such as in the Cabanyal neighborhood, the same thing happens,” he said.
Both Professor Cos-Gayón and the president of the real estate companies consider that this would only be an emergency and short-term solution. Nora García adds to the empty homes the illegal tourist apartments which, according to her calculations, add up to between 2,000 and 3,000 homes.
The demonstration, in which many young people participated, was not a festive demonstration. During the tour there was no music or dancing. It was a peaceful and serious march. “The city for those who live in it,” they proclaimed.
