[AlunAlun]

No, we can’t explicitly establish that. It is of course true that many squatters do so out of financial necessity, but others do so for other reasons: a lifestyle choice, a political choice, or plain freeloading and financial gain - in a squat in my village there were people living there with full time jobs and driving brand new Audis!

I would add further that the responsibility of paying the utilities and tax falls on the building owner even if it is occupied by squatters.

None of this diminishes the fact that housing is increasingly expensive in Spain, particularly in Madrid and Barcelona, and this is causing real problems.

But the situation is definitely more complicated than just ‘build more houses’.

[matt-p]

I wonder what the split is here? Lets say 1000 squatters how many can afford housing but choose not to?

Of those who can afford to rent how many have jobs and cars but do this so they can save for a house deposit rather than all 60% of thier income going to housing?

I'm not "pro squatter" or anything I just think you could solve 90% of this problem if you built much more housing.

[pas]

Ah, the squatters with Audis sounds newsworthy, is it something like this https://www.elmundo.es/madrid/2023/02/23/63f66cacfdddffa0b48... ?

[kgwgk]

Another BMW-driving serial squatter (having a secondary residence for the weekend is also a human right):

https://www.elespanol.com/reportajes/20240528/maria-okupa-be...