Public housing at market rates: Sánchez's scheme in Spain's small towns

Government rents out public flats for over 1,000 euros in towns of 8,000 residents

Social housing? More like market-rate rentals. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez celebrated on Monday the launch of 1,200 public homes through the state agency Casa 47, but the prices listed on its website are anything but affordable. In Vidreres (Girona province, 8,860 residents), a three-bedroom flat rents for 1,012 euros a month. In San Antonio de Benagéber (Valencia, 11,000 residents), a four-bedroom unit reaches 1,066 euros. These are not isolated cases: many leases hover around or exceed 1,000 euros, even in small municipalities.

Broken promises in plain sight

The 1,200 homes figure pales next to the 300,000 promised by the government eight years ago. The opposition was quick to point out the disparity, but the government merely stressed its commitment. Meanwhile, average rents keep soaring, and public solutions seem designed to raise revenue rather than make housing accessible. In places like Barakaldo, where rents are frozen because it is a designated high-pressure market area, a central three-bedroom flat rents for 600 euros, but tenants cannot have the rent updated. Ironically, public intervention is not helping those who need it most.

The price of living in a small town

Some argue these prices reflect how small municipalities near big cities have become havens for high earners. Yet the data show that even in towns of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, public rents exceed the national average. The question is whether the Ministry of Housing is more interested in filling its coffers than solving the crisis. For now, the result is that public housing has become just another business, with prices that are anything but social.

A solution or a new problem?

The government's strategy appears to be offering homes at market prices while stamping them as "public." Scepticism is growing: who can pay 1,000 euros in a town of 8,000 residents, where average wages are lower than in major cities? The answer: very few. Meanwhile, the promise of 300,000 homes has shrunk to 1,200. Perhaps the next step is to pray the market corrects itself, because public intervention is not helping.