Housing rises to top concern for Catalans during Sánchez’s last term in office

Housing has become the number one issue for Catalans during the last legislative term under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. 

Housing climbed from sixth to first place among Catalans' main concerns, according to surveys from the Catalan government's Center for Opinion Studies (CEO). 

It is now in its second year as the top concern. Currently, 30% of those polled name it as the biggest problem, a level of consensus among the population not seen since 2020, when concern centered on healthcare at the height of the pandemic. 

Housing displaced long-standing worries such as unemployment and relations between Catalonia and Spain, which are now less prominent. 

In the summer of 2023, before Sánchez began his current term, housing was not among the top five concerns. Only 8% of those surveyed by the CEO named it as the main problem, behind dissatisfaction with politics (13%), unemployment and job insecurity (9.2%), relations between Catalonia and Spain (9.1%) and healthcare (9%).

In about a year, housing jumped to first place, with 20% of those surveyed by the CEO naming it as their top concern in autumn 2024. It stayed there, and the share has risen to 30% today.

Housing is also the top concern across Spain. According to monthly surveys from Spain's Center for Sociological Research (CIS), the share of citizens naming it as the main problem rose from 2.5% after the July 2023 general election to 29.9% in October 2026. 

The latest figure reflects the impact of protests over the eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman, and the vote in Congress on housing decrees.

Young people and city dwellers most concerned

CEO polling shows that housing concerns grew across demographics, including gender, age, place of residence and even political affiliation, with some differences. 

Young people, residents of medium-sized and large urban areas, voters for center-left and left-wing parties, and people with higher education are the most concerned. 

The youngest group showed the sharpest increase. Less than four years ago, only 8% of 18- to 24-year-olds named housing as the main problem, a figure close to the average. Today, over one in three (36%) do. 

It is the top concern for this generation by a wider margin than ever, ahead of immigration (12.4%), their second-biggest concern.

Nearly 40% of Barcelona residents name housing as Catalonia's main problem. The data shows that the perception rises with the size of the place of residence. 

In villages and municipalities of up to 2,000 inhabitants, housing is not the top concern (12.2%), instead, immigration and dissatisfaction with politics rank higher, each at 16.2%.

Rising costs, policies and social debate

In recent years, the cost of both renting and buying a home rose far faster than wages, household income or general inflation. 

That factor, combined with public policies at the state level (such as the Housing Law passed in May 2023) and by the Catalan government (such as rent regulation and price caps, or the ban on speculative housing purchases), as well as the debate these policies sparked, placed the housing crisis increasingly at the center of public discourse.

Concern over housing grew among citizens across the political spectrum, although not everyone ranks it as Catalonia's top problem. 

Only supporters of Vox and Aliança Catalana rank immigration first. For Vox the view is much stronger: 34.7% of its voters name immigration as the main problem. 

Immigration rises as a concern

Immigration now ranks second among citizens' concerns, with 10.6% naming it as the main problem. That is a sharp shift from the 4% recorded at the start of the legislative term, when it was far from a central issue.

In towns with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, 16.2% name immigration as the main problem, sharply higher than the 9% in municipalities of up to 10,000 residents. In Barcelona, only 6.3% do. In towns and cities of 150,000 to 1 million inhabitants, mainly metropolitan cities, concern is also rising (13.7%), ranking second.

Unemployment and job insecurity

Unemployment is one of the concerns that fell significantly during the current Spanish legislative term. It dropped from second place (9.2% of respondents) to eighth (4.3%). 

It remains a bigger concern for women (4.9%) than for men (3.8%), as in 2023.