Protesters blame 'vulture funds' for Spain's housing crisis

However, Jorge Galindo, director at the Esade centre for economic policy, says that available data makes it difficult to know exactly how many Spanish properties are owned by so-called "vulture funds" and being used for speculation. He points to Bank of Spain figures from 2024 showing that only 8% of properties for rent are owned by companies.Galindo says he concludes from the data available that there is not a notable accumulation of property to rent among a small number of owners in Spain."When it comes to explaining the rise in rentals, that is not the big cause," he says. "What explains it is the shortage of supply compared to demand over recent years."The Bank of Spain appears to agree, and has estimated that the country has a housing shortfall of around 750,000 homes. The institution's deputy governor, Soledad Núñez, warned in September that by 2028 that could rise to one million.There are 3.8 million empty properties in Spain, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), but a large number of those are in depopulated rural areas and therefore have little relevance to the current crisis, which is most acute in urban hubs. Other explanations for this high number inclu...