Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00The general strike on November 11th, Pedro
00:00:03Sanchez's government introduced a package of housing reforms to parliament
00:00:06and failed. The opposition from both the right and left voted
00:00:09against it. The result: early elections were announced for spring
00:00:132027.
00:00:15Typically Spanish stories are
00:00:19abundant online. Here's Samuel, who has lived in Barcelona since 2004.
00:00:23He rented the same apartment for 15 years, received a certified
00:00:27letter, and he's being evicted.
00:00:30Honestly, I'm in despair right now.
00:00:33They're telling me that the contract is ending after 15
00:00:37years, and I'm very scared. I started looking for apartments. Out of the first five
00:00:40apartments online, four were short-term rentals. They didn't even respond
00:00:44to the fifth one. Even within a 20-30 km radius of the city, I can't find anything at a price
00:00:47I can afford. I consider myself lucky. I have a
00:00:51decent salary, and even I might
00:00:55have to leave the city. Spaniards themselves call
00:00:58such cases "hidden evictions," although
00:01:02there's nothing hidden about them. There are many tougher cases. I wasn't
00:01:06evicted like Mari Carmen; they just demanded
00:01:09my apartment and threw me out like a sack
00:01:13of potatoes. The average rent in
00:01:16Spain is 1,211 euros,
00:01:19but that's just an average. Madrid -
00:01:221,637 euros, Barcelona -
00:01:251,646 euros. These are the most expensive
00:01:28rents in Spain. For comparison, the average salary in
00:01:32the country is about 2,200 euros per
00:01:34month. In 2025, residents spent an average of
00:01:3850% of their salary on rent. This is the highest
00:01:42figure on record. 13 provinces in Spain
00:01:45have an average monthly rent above a thousand euros.
00:01:48Supply is falling, demand is rising. For every rental ad, there are an average of
00:01:52143 potential tenants.
00:01:55Everyone knows that rent in Madrid is exorbitant, but that's not even the worst part:
00:01:58You're already mentally prepared
00:02:02to pay an indecent amount, and then they demand every document from your entire
00:02:06life, down to your cat's birth certificate. Sometimes they want
00:02:09three to four times the rent in income after taxes. If the apartment
00:02:13is 1,000, they ask for 3-4,000 net, three
00:02:17pay stubs, a 3-month bank statement, and an open-ended contract. With such
00:02:19high rents, buying your own home is simply unrealistic. Prices in Spain are growing
00:02:23faster than in most of Europe, and salaries are among the
00:02:26lowest in Western Europe. Barcelona -
00:02:304,735 euros per square meter in
00:02:332024. In 2025,
00:02:37a growth of 10.1%
00:02:40per year. In 2026, another
00:02:43plus 9%. Madrid - 4,400
00:02:45euros per square meter. Growth of
00:02:494.8%. Balearic Islands -
00:02:525,395 euros per meter. An average
00:02:5680 sq. meter apartment there costs over
00:02:59400,000 euros. With an average salary of
00:03:022,200 euros per month, this means that without a 30-year
00:03:05mortgage, buying a home is unattainable for most.
00:03:08According to the National Institute of Statistics of Spain, in 2025 almost
00:03:1245% of the country's residents
00:03:17aged 26 to 34 lived with
00:03:20their parents. Almost half of them not because they
00:03:24wanted to, but because they couldn't afford to rent or buy a
00:03:27separate home. Today, the housing issue is becoming one
00:03:30of the most pressing and socially significant problems not only in Spain, but
00:03:33also throughout the European Union. According to Eurostat, from 2015 to
00:03:372025, housing prices in the EU grew by almost 64%, and
00:03:41rental rates by about 22%. The crisis
00:03:44affects not only low-income families, but also the middle class, young
00:03:48professionals, and workers in socially important
00:03:51sectors. "I call the landlord, what
00:03:55happened? Inflation has skyrocketed and I need to sell
00:03:59the apartment. Since you're a good
00:05:13tenant, you have priority. You can buy it." "How much are you asking?"
00:05:16"80 sq. meters plus an attic, in the very center of Madrid,
00:05:19460 thousand euros." I say, "Wait, I'll go to
00:05:22my mattress and get the half million that's lying there. Where do you think I'll
00:05:25get half a million cash at 30 years old?"
00:05:28There are several reasons for high prices, and not just a housing shortage is fueling
00:05:32their rapid growth. In Spain and Portugal,
00:05:36the tourism sector creates additional pressure. Renting
00:05:40short-term is much more profitable, which locals take advantage
00:05:43of, reducing supply for the domestic
00:05:46market. And what's most interesting is that demand is not
00:05:50only not falling, but is growing every year.
00:05:53рынка. И что самое интересное, спрос не только не
00:05:56падает, но с каждым годом растёт.