2006/12/14

The Right to housing in Spain, still lots to build

United Nations

From 20 November to 1 December 2006, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari, conducted a mission to Spain to examine the status of realization of the right to adequate housing, paying particular attention to aspects of gender equality and non- discrimination.

Spain seriously lacks public housing. The current housing programmes do not address the needs of the bottom 20-25% of the population. The Spanish Institute of Statistics estimated at the end of 2005 that there were 21,900 homeless persons.

The Special Rapporteur is of the view that this is a conservative estimate given that Spain is the third poorest of the original fifteen States of the European Union and, according to the National Statistic Institute, figures on income distribution, released on 1 December 2006, 20% of Spaniards live below the poverty line.

Paradoxically, Spain possesses the largest number of vacant houses of the European Union (3 to 4 million).

The Special Rapporteur is of the view that this is a conservative estimate given that Spain is the third poorest of the original fifteen States of the European Union and, according to the National Statistic Institute, figures on income distribution, released on 1 December 2006, 20% of Spaniards live below the poverty line.

Virtually all of the very low proportion of rental housing is in the private sector with only 2% of dwellings classified as social compared to 10-30% in other countries of the European Union.

Moreover, although around 18% less than in the private market, the prices of public rental housing tend to be too high for some sectors of the population. Paradoxically, Spain possesses the largest number of vacant houses of the European Union (3 to 4 million).

Although the difficult situation of housing affects all sectors of the population, some sections, such as the homeless, children and youth, the elderly, people with disabilities and health problems, persons with low incomes, refugees and asylum-seekers, migrants, minorities such as the Roma (Gypsy communities) and women (including women facing domestic violence and single mothers), have been more affected.

Read the complete Preliminary Report