"Housing is increasingly treated as a financial asset rather than a social good." Discuss with reference to Spain's housing crisis and its lessons for Indian cities.

When housing is treated as a financial asset, homes are bought and priced for investment returns rather than for shelter. Spain shows the cost. In September 2026, 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal was evicted from the Madrid flat she had lived in for over 70 years after an investment fund bought it. Her eviction set off protests across Spain [1].

Housing as an asset: the Spanish evidence

• Investment funds bought rented buildings and raised rents sharply. Abascal's rent rose from €500 to €2,650 [1].
• Tourism capital: short-term rentals take flats out of long-term supply. In 2025 Spain ordered more than 65,000 unlicensed listings removed [2].
• Price spiral: house prices are rising by double digits every year, which hurts affordability and makes it harder for workers to move for jobs [3].
• Social cost: rents have grown faster than lower-income households' earnings. The young and the elderly are hit hardest [2].

Financialisation is only part of the story

• The IMF traces demand to population growth, migration and falling interest rates, meeting rigid supply [3]. Its consistent remedy is to build more homes [4].
• Supply bottlenecks: too little buildable land, slow permits and frequently changing rules [2][3].
• Rent caps under the Law on the Right to Housing, 2023 protect sitting tenants [2]. However, the IMF advises ending them after their first term unless a review shows they have not shrunk rental supply [3].
• Spain now pairs limits on demand with new supply: the public housing company Casa 47 and the public fund España Crece [3].

Lessons for Indian cities

• Unlock vacant homes: a large share of urban rental housing stands empty because of rent control laws and weak contract enforcement. Twenty states still had rent control laws in 2021 [5].
• Adopt the Model Tenancy Act, 2021: it caps the security deposit at two months' rent and sets up dedicated Rent Authorities and Rent Courts [6]. By 2022, only Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Assam had revised their laws along its lines [7].
• Supply first: release land and speed up building approvals, as the IMF urges for Spain [3].
• Regulate short-term rentals in tourist cities such as Goa and the hill towns early [2].
• Targeted support for vulnerable tenants instead of rent caps for everyone.

Spain shows that when homes become investment assets and supply cannot keep up, affordability collapses and turns into a political crisis. Indian cities can avoid this by combining stable tenancy laws, faster housing supply and targeted protection for vulnerable tenants. That would keep housing a social good, in line with the right to shelter that courts have read into Article 21 and with SDG 11.1.