The City Building Business in Spain

An indisputable characteristic of Spanish cities and metropolises has consisted, for almost a century, in presenting themselves as enormously attractive spaces for the speculative business of housing and the purchase and sale of land. The city is identified less as a pleasant place to live for its citizens and more as a privileged area of capitalist business. This observation encourages the analysis in this chapter, where housing and the struggle for control of space in the main Spanish cities becomes the focus of the exhibition. The processes of appropriation, zoning and generation of capital gains in urban land are explained. The major actors and groups that promote this process are listed. But, at the same time, emphasis is placed on innovative practices and social content in housing management based on unique local experiences such as Barcelona, Cádiz or Pamplona in a short period. The debate on the right to the city remains alive and housing costs continue to present themselves as the highest that a household must face throughout its life. However, since the 2008 crisis, the obsession with accessing home ownership and an expanding rental market, still not effectively regulated, make up a panorama that will be analysed in these pages for the whole of Spain.