Article 47 of the Constitution states that all Spaniards have the right to “decent and adequate housing”. However, in real estate portals you can see hundreds of houses that sometimes do not even meet the minimum housing requirements. Madrid has the highest quality housing, with prices exceeding € 450 and rising as it approaches the center.
According to data from the Housing and Land Observatory collected by epdata, rent in Spain averages 674 euros per month. However, there are large fluctuations in the figures from the province, averaging between 336 euros in Lugo to 819 euros in Madrid, whose public average salary is 2350.2 euros and the cost of living is 20% higher than the rest. Communities, according to a study on the cost of living in Spanish cities by the Bank of Spain.
Malasaña is an area where more apartments with these characteristics are for rent. On the street Jesús del Valle there is a “bright studio” with 16 useful square meters with sloping ceiling without a room (folding bed in the living room) for 550 euros per month and a two-month deposit. However, if the previous apartment does not meet the necessary characteristics of a potential tenant, a few minutes walk from Calle Antonio Grilo is another 30 square meter apartment for 900 euros. However, before renting it, it should be noted that the agency, one month deposit and the current month must be paid, ie 2700 euros before relocation. But the first and most important thing is to demonstrate that you have sufficient financial solvency by providing a salary or guarantees.
This trend applies to all districts in the center of the capital. ““Do not give up your privacy by sharing an apartment,” says the description of a 12-square-meter indoor basement that can be rented without an elevator for 420 euros in the Latina area. “Very cheap,” the owner said.
There are those who perceive this with humor, but without condemning the situation. ZulistA parody Twitter account, collects photos and ads of small apartments and shares them.
The profile, which has almost 100,000 followers, was created in 2018 with a clear motto: “Better a laugh than a cry.” From it, they help share this type of “real estate nightmare” with other users. The report collects hundreds of apartments for rent throughout Spain and beyond, but above all it shows the reality of people who have to live in appalling conditions even though they pay more than 400 or 500 euros in rent.
The creators of the profile say that the idea came from the WhatsApp group. One of the people in the group started searching for an apartment in Madrid and found that “the situation was quite different from the previous time when he was looking”. “Jokingly, the most incredible thing he discovered happened to the group, something that someone thought could not even exist,” explains one person who has a profile and who prefers not to provide information about his identity. . “We never talk about who is behind the account,” he explains.
The creators believe that Zulista’s success came and continues to this day because “people who were looking for an apartment found themselves in a situation of finding these items.” Four years later, after collecting ads and pictures of these places, they are still amazed. “It’s unbelievable that it can exist, but it does exist. When we believe we have already seen everything, something emerges that manages to surprise us,” they say.
“The largest number of tracks we have found is in Madrid, especially within the M-30 and in the center,” they explain. It is one of the largest and most populous cities in Spain and has “much more supply and demand”, which has an impact on the rent of these almost uninhabited apartments due to the high prices of the rest.
However, they note that tourism has also had an impact and a lot. “A large number of apartments in holiday homes have started, and this has led to an unbalanced supply and demand, and has led to rising prices and falling quality,” they said.
They point out that these apartments have been around for a long time. “In Madrid and other big cities, there is a real estate park that was built before the 1940s, before any type of housing regulation was approved. These buildings should not meet the minimum meters or ventilation, and in terms of cadastre, they still remain houses. The whole real estate park is used.”
Source: El Diario
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