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Update
In the Basque Country, real estate prices are on the rise. Many owners sell their property and residents find themselves on the streets facing a lack of solutions.
In order to fight against real estate speculation and the lack of housing, activists from the Alda association are mobilizing in the Basque Country. They are hunting homes that were once rented out for the year, which have since been transformed into tourist accommodation. In Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a studio has just been sold to be re-let on the Airbnb platform. The association reserved it to decorate it with posters. “We, what we denounce, it is the speculation and the commodification of the common goods which are the housing and the land”, says Txetx Etcheverry.
The price per square meter in Biarritz amounts to an average of 7,000 euros, which represents an increase of 40% in five years. Many owners therefore sell their property. The entire Basque Country is suffering from this price hike. With the development of teleworking during the health crisis, the demand for housing is exploding with an offer that does not always follow. A family residing in Uztaritze will have to leave the house that it has rented for three years, because its owner is preparing to sell it for 600,000 euros. The family risks ending up on the streets.