Basque social housing: half of tenants are foreign, 60% unemployed

Basque social housing: half of tenants are foreign, 60% unemployed

Who really benefits from social housing in the Basque Country? The 2025 report on the rental market in the Basque Autonomous Community delivers an uncomfortable figure: half of social housing (VPO) tenants are foreign, and six out of ten of them are unemployed. Average household income falls short of €1,874, while €880 goes on rent. The financial burden: 47%, far above the reasonable 30%.

Two readings of the same social housing

Across the Basque rental market as a whole, more than half of households are made up of foreign residents, and only four out of ten tenants have a job. The average rent for 2024 contracts was €819, with Gipuzkoa leading at €853.

Some see in these figures a necessary redistribution towards the most vulnerable. Others ask, ironically, why public housing funded by everyone's taxes ends up in households with such a high unemployment rate. Immigration is in the crosshairs for some; others point out that speculation and the lack of supply squeeze harder. The debate is on, but the outcome is not: high rents and social housing acting as a cushion.

The anecdote from the nineties

It is not the first time this has peine. In the nineties, a social housing draw on the Urumea river in San Sebastián ended with 80% of the winners able to pay in cash when the banks foreclosed the mortgages. Back then, immigration was not the problem; it was the diversion of the social purpose.

The conclusion, if there is one, is uncomfortable: the social housing system reflects the market around it, it does not correct it. With an average rent of €819 and burdens of 47%, some will see the report as a victory for social protection. Others, as a bill come due. The data, meanwhile, remain there.