Comment by ricardobayes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ricardobayes | Hacker News Reader

It's difficult to comment on news like this, if there was a good, fast solution, it would have been enacted by now. I do somewhat agree that more renter protection is unlikely to solve much. Spain had years of complete eviction bans, meaning even if you completely default on your rent, the owner couldn't do anything. Even if a court ordered removal, enforcement was impossible.

This lady was living in a very desirable, central area of Madrid, paying peanuts for rent. Think Central Park rent for $500.

The spanish public generally doesn't want to, "build more", as they reject megacities. One of the biggest problem is there are no good, viable second and third-tier cities that have jobs. While there are very cheap places on the countryside, no one wants to live there as there are no jobs.

A complex solution would help: Canada-style ban of non-resident ownership, at least in stressed areas, "building more", but not in Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, and in parallel, boost small businesses and remote work to help de-centralize living. However I don't think any country really cracked the code how to fix housing.

As Iberian, the reality on the other side is unfortunately quite similar, the remote working part is spot on.

We have a very strong culture regarding office work, meaning those in charge.

When I see news or talk to friends, relatives, it seems the daily reality is eons away from central, northern Europe regarding remote, even after covid.

So it is back to either living on the city center, or spending 4 hours a day commuting from the city outskirts, with several connections, and various timetables.

While at the same time, we have those sponsored housing, and gold visas, for digital nomads with US salaries, which make natives very unhappy not being able to afford rentals priced for foreigner purses.

Those making TikTok and YouTube Shorts videos how living in Portugal and Spain is so great, the food and the "cheap" prices.

Yes, exactly, I agree. I'd argue that's what the smaller, viable cities would fix: in Germany, big cities are equally expensive, but you can rent a very nice flat for 5-600 euros, in Erlangen, Nürnberg, Dortmund, Jena, etc. Spain has a lot of available space and great infrastructure, with fast trains and fiber internet everywhere. As a thought experiment, it would be pretty cool if Spain could create a digital city, in say, Teruel province, with brand new housing and high added value jobs, perhaps paired with lowered company taxes to attract companies settling. Perhaps it would also achieve nothing, I'm just brainstorming here.

Maybe yes, maybe no, however that could be the way indeed.

Spain has horrible, unreliable to non existent public transport in most places. Really good working one in others.

That's mostly how Switzerland is tackling this problem. Definitely not by building more

> this, if there was a good, fast solution, it would have been enacted by now.

Why? Is it the law that governments have to a) be on your side? Or b) be effective?

Your underlying assumption is completely

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