Spain’s housing crunch upends lives

Madrid, Oct. 16: At 38, Nadinne Fillol has a job, a partner and hopes of having children.

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.