Spain faces general strike as housing costs dominate snap election

Spain will hold its first general strike in 14 years on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, weeks before voters go to the polls in a snap general election. Housing costs sit at the center of both the strike and the vote, the report said.

Anger over housing rose in September after an elderly woman was evicted from a Madrid home she had lived in since 1956. Hundreds of thousands of people protested nationwide, prompting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to submit a long-delayed housing bill to parliament. When lawmakers rejected the legislation, he called the snap vote.

"Every generation has its struggle," Sánchez said at a rally shortly after calling the vote. "Ours is housing, and we will solve it, backed by the strength of the people." He also called for action against "those who run vulture funds" and their "speculative practices and abuses," while urging voters to protect "small property owners and tenants."

Eurostat's house price index shows Spanish house prices rose 80% between 2015 and 2025, while salaries rose 30%, the report said. By the second quarter of 2026, prices were around double their level in the same period of 2015. In 2025, 67% of people aged 18 to 34 lived with their parents, and almost half of 26-to-34-year-olds in that position cited the inability to afford rent or a purchase as the main reason.

Sánchez pledged to use "all state resources" to provide 184,000 public and affordable rental homes, a promise the report said has been difficult to realize. Tourist housing accounts for about 10% of Spain's already small rental market, according to a national bank estimate cited in the report, and in some historic centers tourist accommodation makes up 45% of the rental market.

Javier Gil, a housing expert at the Spanish National Research Council, traced the roots of the problem to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when large-scale investors began buying property. "The cash didn't disappear from the market; it just ended up in the hands of investors," he said. Alice Pittini, research director at Housing Europe, said Spain's price increases are not the highest in Europe, pointing to Eastern European countries, and that rent rises in Spain were relatively modest compared with most other EU members between 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Jorge Collado, a 26-year-old student who took part in a protest encampment in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, said he moved back to his family's home after his former landlord raised the rent when he requested a legal contract. "We're fed up with this situation, and the politicians aren't doing anything to solve this," he said.