🏘️ If you look at Spain’s housing market, ravaged by unsustainable rent increases and evictions, you will see that re-centering the right to land in our political and public agendas is equally relevant in the urban context.🏾 In 2008, investment funds, aided by the Spanish government, took advantage of the financial crisis to enter the housing market and hoard properties. The result has been a 55%increase in rental prices and 1.7 million people evicted from their homes. The tenants have fought back. In 2018, 450 residents of a building in the province of Barcelona won their legal fight against Goldman Sachs – one of the largest investment banks in the world – which had instigated a monumental rent increase. That same year, the 150 families affected negotiated a fairer, and more gradual rent increase plan for their apartments. Despite this victory, the housing market continues to spur speculation, and 73% of houses owned by corporations remain empty. Without comprehensive regulations and tenant protection laws, housing continues to be treated not as a right, but as an investment asset. Read the article via the link in our bio! Written with the support of @observatoridesc and with photographs by @ruidophoto#WeBelongToTheLand #RightToHousing #LandStruggleSeries #financialization #housingcrisis #Spain #urbanspeculation #corporatecapture #investmentfunds