The housing crisis in Spain hit fever pitch this weekend, as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in 40 cities across the country in coordinated protests. They aimed to shed light on the problem of affordable housing in the southern European country. 

Around 30,000 people demonstrated in Malaga, the capital of the Costa del Sol. The action appears to have had an effect, as the city council has now revealed that it has cancelled its plans to build 1,300 tourist homes. It is also contemplating a "total ban" on the sale of land to anyone who is not a native.

The mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, has announced that a new measure is being considered within the framework of the General Urban Planning Document (PGOU) - a mandatory town planning scheme that allocates land for housing, industrial units and other uses. 

Last year, Malaga made several interventions to curb the construction and acquisition of tourist housing, including the prohibiting of new holiday apartments in 43 neighbourhoods such as La Merced and Centro. Now, De la Torre has revealed that a “global moratorium” is under consideration, The Olive Press reported.

The proposal, which must be approved at a future Local Government Board meeting. No date has been set for this meeting thus far. 

“We are a municipality clearly committed to this; we are also trying to understand the exact statistics,” said the mayor, noting that the strategy has already reduced the number of registered holiday homes significantly. 

Regarding the proposed moratorium, De la Torre said: “We want to know how many tourist homes there are, where they are located, how many new tourist apartments have been opened, what land has been taken up by tourist rentals and hotels, and where these developments are concentrated. 

“We want to determine how tourism can be made compatible with everyday city life,” he added. “We need to decide whether guidelines should be established to ensure a balance.”

However, some concerns have been raised about the mayor’s focus on “legality”, with worries that the city council, or indeed the national government, could begin altering the PGOU and reclassifying some areas of land.

Observers suggest that recent protests against “guiris” (foreigners) have made local politicians wary. 

The pressure group, Malaga Para Vivir (Malaga For Living), was one of the many organisations to join the protest on April 5. Spokesperson for the organisation Kike España called Malaga’s economic model a “scam”. 

“Housing has become the most important problem for citizens,” he told The Olive Press. “Everything in recent decades has been done to turn the centre of Malaga into a tourist attraction park that only benefits a few, while expelling its neighbours.”

A member of another protest group, Noemi Escobar, said: “the housing crisis and a city model based on real estate and tourism speculation, which drives out residents, makes employment precarious, and destroys the territory”.