San Francisco Frontiers - 'Can't sleep': Spain's housing crunch upends lives

Yet Spain's housing crisis has left her sharing a flat in Madrid with three other people -- and doubting whether she will ever be able to afford a home of her own to start a family.

"There's no realistic way for me to have a home and give them even a minimally good life. It simply isn't possible," Fillol, who works as a comedian, told AFP from her room in the flat in central Madrid.

She would like to set up home with her boyfriend, who lives in the eastern city of Valencia, but the couple says apartment prices are out of their reach.

Across Spain, soaring rents and a shortage of affordable homes are forcing people to delay starting families, putting pressure on households with children and leaving young people struggling to set up on their own.

The crisis has become a major political issue following the recent eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her lifelong home and her subsequent death, which fuelled nationwide protests.

Hundreds of tents have occupied Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square since she was taken away on a stretcher last month after the real estate company that owned her flat drastically hiked the rent.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called an early election for November 29 after his minority government failed to pass housing measures prompted by the protests.

- 'Infuriating' -

"It's infuriating," said Fillol, who has slept at the protest camp, fighting back tears as she discussed the legislative defeat.

Damp patches and water damage mark the hallway ceiling of her flat, and the windows do not shut properly.

Fillol said her landlord refused to make repairs, telling her and the other tenants they would struggle to find affordable alternatives.

She earns nearly 2,000 euros ($2,200) a month before taxes, just below Spain's average gross monthly salary of around 2,460 euros.

Fillol pays 350 euros a month for a room barely big enough for a bed and a computer desk, allowing her to save towards a deposit on her own home.

But the deposit she needs keeps rising faster than she can save.

"It delays every major life milestone," she said.

- 'What's going to happen?' -

Homeownership has long been the norm in Spain, where around three-quarters of households own their properties.

But asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent in Spain over the past decade, while average rents have almost doubled, according to real estate website Idealista.

Renting a 50-square-metre (540-square-foot) apartment in Madrid cost an average of 1,170 euros a month in September -- around half the average gross monthly salary.

For Manuel Navarro, 32, who earns around 800 euros a month doing odd jobs, renting on the open market is out of reach.

He lives with his wife and their three children, aged four, seven and eight, in a flat belonging to the Madrid regional government's social housing agency that they occupy without authorisation.

Authorities are seeking to evict the family.

"There are days when I can't sleep," Navarro told AFP at his flat, where a battered pram containing two well-worn dolls stood by the entrance.

"In front of my little ones, I try to lead a normal life, but when night comes I start thinking, 'My God, what's going to happen? What am I going to do with my children? Where am I going to go?'"

- 'Really hard' -

Landlords complain that evicting tenants who stop paying rent can take months, leaving them to cover mortgage payments and other costs, and that changing rules on renting create legal uncertainty.

The Bank of Spain estimates the country faces a housing shortage of 700,000 homes.

Rising immigration and the growth of short-term tourist rentals have added to demand, while bureaucracy and labour shortages are slowing construction.

"There's hardly anything available," said Laura Alonso, 26, who scrambled to find a new home with her partner in August after their landlord gave them notice.

"It was a really hard time," she said, fearing she would have to move back in with her parents, into her childhood bedroom.

"As soon as a flat comes onto the market, 50 people are phoning," she told AFP at the couple's new flat in suburban Madrid, where boxes lay unpacked.

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G.Miller--SFF