Grassroots struggles challenging housing financialization in Spain

Abstract

Spain was one of the most severely hit countries by the 2008 global financial crisis. More than ten years after, the belated economic recovery has hardly changed the roots of that crisis, especially the financialization of the real estate sector. Remarkably, from 2009 to the present, several grassroots struggles have questioned those roots and demanded solutions to the affordability housing crisis. In this study, we examine two salient cases: the campaign against the Bankia bank and opposition to the international investment fund Blackstone. Both firms forced thousands of home evictions upon financially broken homeowners and tenants, respectively, the latter doing so via sharp rent increases. Here we investigate the claims, protest repertoires and achievements of these housing struggles. Our analysis shows that every type of grassroots’ response was shaped by a distinct process of capital accumulation through the financialization of housing. The first was driven mainly by austerity policies and the second by state-led actions to reignite housing speculation.

Keywords:

• Housing financialization
• housing movements
• Bankia
• Blackstone
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2012-05-13/bankia-ejecuta-mas-del-80-de-los-desahucios-que-se-producen-en-madrid_231959/

2 https://www.eldiario.es/economia/bankia-traspasa-sareb-millones-bfa_1_5539064.html

3 https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/08/10/inenglish/1502382393_471618.html

4 https://www.eldiario.es/economia/blackstone-controla-viviendas-alquiler-socimis_1_2729732.html

5 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/26/blackstone-group-accused-global-housing-crisis-un

6 https://www.efe.com/efe/espana/economia/la-banca-espanola-se-juega-su-mermada-reputacion-en-crisis-del-coronavirus/10003-4227915

7 https://www.ft.com/content/d8411cf6-bb89-11e1-90e4-00144feabdc0

8 https://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/2017/10/20/bankia-la-entidad-lider-en-desahucios-sigue-dando-la-espalda-a-la-ciudadania/

9 https://www.bankia.com/es/gestion-responsable/sociedad/fondo-social-de-viviendas/ In a tweet response to our query, @HolaBankia confirmed this figure as the accumulative number of social rents from 2012 to 2019.

10 https://www.eldiario.es/alternativaseconomicas/preferentes-cronica-estafa-andreu-misse_132_3840967.html

11 https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/15MpaRato

12 https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/comunidad-valenciana/2015-11-26/bankia-sabadell-o-sareb-con-miles-de-pisos-okupados-que-no-pueden-rentabilizar_1107147/

13 https://www.icerda.org/es/producto/la-ocupacion-ilegal-realidad-social-urbana-y-economica-un-problema-que-necesita-solucion-pdf/

14 We also visited cases in Seville and Madrid in which squatters joined the resistance of previous tenants in the same building. See, for example: https://okupabankia.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/el-reto-de-sebastian-elcano-36/

15 https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/movimientos/23183-se-extiende-la-okupacion-sucursales-bancarias-barcelona.html

16 https://www.agoraalcorcon.org/uncategorized/desalojan-de-celenque-a-acampada-bankia

17 In Tarragona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = IxaUOLva4Es&ab_channel = DiarideTarragona In Benidorm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = OIRr40BDmZ8&ab_channel = PahAltea. Both in 2014.

18 https://15mpedia.org/wiki/Toque_a_Bankia

19 https://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/2013/05/09/minuto-a-minuto-tocandoabankia/

20 https://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/castella/dades/inf/pobest/pobest18/part1/nt27.htm

21 https://360gradospress.com/reportajes/barrios-en-lucha-contra-el-imperio-de-la-especulacion/

22 https://www.elperiodico.com/es/ocio-y-cultura/20190707/perreando-contra-blackstone-7543315

23 https://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/183167/raval/peu/guerra/contra/especulacio/blackstone

24 https://www.metropoliabierta.com/distritos/ciutat-vella/raval-vence-blackstone-guerra-vivienda_18232_102.html

25 https://twitter.com/raquelrolnik/status/1146748468133842944

26 https://twitter.com/RavalSindicat/status/1146462521097904130

27 https://www.publico.es/sociedad/afectados-fidere-rebelion-inquilinos-madrilenos-mayor-casero-espana.html

28 https://www.inquilinato.org/madridvsblackstone/

29 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/26/blackstone-group-accused-global-housing-crisis-un

30 https://www.inquilinato.org/el-sindicato-de-inquilinas-gana-al-fondo-buitre-blackstone/