Streets Paved with Evicted Families
MADRID, Oct 7, 2011 (IPS) - As the number of apartments and houses left empty in Spain due to failure to make mortgage or rental payments climbs, tens of thousands of families, including many immigrants, are living on the streets, in shantytowns, or crowded into seedy boarding houses.
Since the global economic crisis reached Spain, the banks have repossessed more and more homes. And as a large proportion of properties going to foreclosure auctions are remaining unsold, banks themselves are repurchasing the homes - at prices significantly lower than what was owed by the original mortgage-holder.
Under Spanish law, it is not enough to merely hand over the housing unit to the bank to cancel the debt; lenders can foreclose not only on the house but seize all the assets, including part of the wages, of the debtor to cover the outstanding mortgage debt.
The bankers "want their clients to pay everything back, with their bones if necessary," Gustavo Fajardo,
The length of time people are spending in Spain has also risen by 2%. Stays in owned apartments or rented villas is now for an average of 15 days – twice that of hotels, driven up by higher numbers of independent travellers staying in rented and more »