Vote expected on 12 November: Spain's parliament decides on the housing decrees. Owners' groups say many owners are holding flats back until then. Call their bluff. Don't be bullied into submission. Don't be the lever.

What to do now
Veí a VeíFair housing in Barcelona
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For locals: born here, or here for years

Same city. Same rights. Same fight.

Locals and newcomers, together for fair housing.

This page in: Català · Español

Castellers building a human tower in Gràcia, held up by the crowd's hands below.

Fem pinya: all of us holding the tower up.

Your neighbour is not your enemy.

The people blaming us are the ones profiting from both of us.

You've watched the rent climb every year. Friends have left for towns further and further out. The flat downstairs has become a revolving door of suitcases. It's easy to look at the newcomer on the stairs and see the cause. Look again.

The newcomer paying 17% more per square metre for a fake "temporary" flat (OCU) isn't taking your home. They're being charged for it twice: once in rent, once in blame. The money goes to the people who turned long-term homes into short contracts, and the anger goes to the people next door.

That's the trick. A city divided into "locals" and "expats" is a city that can't organise. A city that stands together is one no owner can play.

  • 72%of Barcelona rental listings were "temporary" in March 2026. OCU
  • 2% → 36%About 2% of landlords hold about 36% of main-residence rentals. El Salto
  • 5.2%gross rental yield in Barcelona. Owners are not losing money. Infobae
  • 3fines for breaking the rent cap in all of Catalonia by July 2026, with 654 cases open. idealista
  • 0Generalitat fines for empty homes in the three years after it gained the power. Ara

Barcelona has done this before.

This city wasn't handed its parks, schools and transport. Neighbours won them, together, and many of those neighbours were newcomers.

1964

Els altres catalans

Paco Candel wrote "The other Catalans" about the workers who came from the rest of Spain and built this city's neighbourhoods (Wikipedia). Their children and grandchildren are Barcelona now. Every generation of newcomers has become neighbours.

From the late 1960s

The neighbourhood movement

Neighbours organised street by street in working-class barris for schools, transport, green space and decent homes, and against speculation (UB). In 1972 they founded the FAVB, which still brings together more than a hundred neighbourhood associations (Ajuntament).

Since 2010

Tots som una colla

Castellers opened their pinya to newcomers: "we are all one team". The tower stands because everyone holds the base, whatever language they speak (betevé).

2024 and 2025

The sound of keys

Tens of thousands marched for lower rents, rattling their house keys (3Cat, betevé). Tenants' unions pushed for the Catalan law that has brought temporary leases under the rent cap since January 2026 (idealista).

Vull poder viure a Barcelona, no visitar-la.
"I want to be able to live in Barcelona, not visit it."
A banner at the march of 23 November 2024 (3Cat). Today it's the newcomers being told, on paper, that they're only visiting.

This depends on you.

Newcomers can learn the law. They can refuse to sign lies, stay in their homes and join the unions. Thousands will. But they can't win this alone, and they can't win it from outside.

The owners and agents running this game are part of this city: our neighbours, our relatives, the agency on the corner. Only Barcelona can make the fake holiday lease shameful in Barcelona. A newcomer's resolve opens the door. A local moral response is what closes the loophole for good.

If you were born here, or have made your life here, your voice carries furthest. Use it for your neighbours, all of them.

Sign the pledge

This is our home. We will not sign that we are tourists. We will not be used against our neighbours.

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The live list shows only your role, district and initial.

What you can do

Pick one this week. Then another.

  • Join your union

    The Sindicat de Llogateres, your neighbourhood housing union, your associació de veïns. Go to one assembly.

    Find the Sindicat

  • Be a neighbour guide

    Welcome one newcomer: help with the padró, the health centre (CAP) and the school, and bring them to their first assembly. A neighbourhood housing union interviews every guide.

    Apply to be a guide

  • Share your language

    Catalan grows when it's shared, not guarded. Be a conversation partner through Voluntariat per la llengua (NacióDigital).

    cpnl.cat

  • Answer the blame

    When someone says "it's the expats", answer with the numbers on this page. Share the posts and posters.

    Posts ready to share

  • Talk to the owners you know

    Your parents, an aunt with an inherited flat, a friend with a second home. Most owners are families. Ask them to rent fairly.

    Send them the owners' page

  • Name the fake leases

    Report fake temporary leases and harassment to a housing office or through the Generalitat's complaint procedure.

    Complaint procedure

  • Show up

    Marches, assemblies, hearings. Bring your keys, and bring a newcomer.

    Get the dates

  • Ask the candidates

    Before the 29 November election, ask every candidate what they will do to enforce the law against fake temporary leases (Demócrata).

    Why now

Before 12 November: don't let the shortage be blamed on newcomers.

Owners' associations say many owners won't put flats back on the long-term market until parliament votes on the new housing decrees (Público). That shortage is a choice, made to pressure a vote. Experts call it a bluff: empty flats still cost owners property tax, building fees and upkeep (Público).

  • Say who's doing it. When the empty listings are blamed on expats, point to the owners' own words.
  • Tell the owners you know that holding a flat empty to pressure parliament is a choice, and that Catalan law on temporary leases stays whatever the vote decides (idealista).
  • Stand with the newcomers searching right now. Many are being pushed to sign fake holiday leases this month. Point them to what to do.
  • Show up on the key dates, starting with the general strike called for 11 November (elEconomista).

Where to go

For your own rights, and to get involved.

Sindicat de Llogateres

Catalonia's tenants' union, behind the 2024 and 2025 marches and the Ens Quedem campaign.

Sindicat de Llogateres

FAVB

The federation of Barcelona's neighbourhood associations. Find the associació de veïns in your barri.

About the FAVB

Barcelona housing offices

Free legal advice and mediation, one office in every district, for tenants and owners.

habitatge.barcelona

Check the legal rent

Is your own rent over the cap? The Generalitat's calculator will tell you.

habitatge.gencat.cat/preuslloguer

Report a breach

Rent over the cap or a fake temporary lease, for contracts signed since 30 January 2025.

tramits.gencat.cat

Voluntariat per la llengua

Pair up with someone learning Catalan, for an hour of conversation a week.

cpnl.cat

La Borda

A housing cooperative in Sants on city land: homes that can't be sold or re-let for profit. Proof that another model already exists here (betevé).

Read about La Borda

Bar Association: free guidance

First legal guidance on housing; free legal aid depends on income.

icab.es

Print it. Post it. Share it.

Put the poster up in your stairwell, your bar, your casal. Send the organizing guide to your associació de veïns.

PDF guideCracking the fake holiday leaseHow to stay lawfully, build your file, and what owners may not do.Poster: PDF and imageYour “holiday” lease may not be legalOne page to print, post and share.PDF guideOrganize your building and neighbourhoodFind your local group, welcome newcomers and act together.Images to postCards for Instagram and FacebookReady to post, including the pledge in six languages.Stickers to printStickers for expat spacesBlunt messages for the bars, coworkings and groups where expats gather.Poster: PDF and imageHow we got hereThe timeline on one page: who decided each step.

Also: the poster as an image (PNG)

Connect with the others.

Fem pinya: the base holds when every group is in it.

Support newcomers

Be the neighbour you'd want if you'd just arrived: a guide for the padró, the CAP, the school, and their first assembly. Help them get informed and plugged in.

Apply to be a guide

Hold agents to account

Ask the agency on your corner to sign the Fair Agent Pledge. Choose, and recommend, the ones who do.

The agents' page

Bring the owners in

Most owners are families like yours. Show them a fair lease is safer and better for the city.

The owners' page

Stand with us

Tell us where you live and what you can do. We'll connect you with newcomers in your neighbourhood and your nearest union.

I can…

We don't share your details. Ask us to delete them at any time by writing to hola@veiavei.com. Share only what you choose.

Sources (17)
The plan

The plan

  1. 1Don't sign a fake lease.Now
  2. 2Convert the ones already signed.Next
  3. 3We rent from ourselves.For good
  4. 4The barri thrives.The result

Instead of lining the pockets of the few, we all thrive together.