Housing as a motivating grievance

Research suggests that economic crises like the Great Recession can invoke grievances that ignite protests and social movements (Bermeo and Bartels, 2014). But much of this literature has focused on issues of austerity (e.g., della Porta, 2015) and the broader macro-economic environment (e.g., Quaranta, 2016). Little is known about housing as a motivating grievance. Thus, this investigation supported by ACES asks: how do housing affordability concerns shape willingness to engage in collective dissent action?

Protest for housing affordability

To answer this question, I focus on the case of Spain due to its recent housing protests which erupted over concerns of affordability, particularly in relation to tourism and investment. Spain is a homeownership society, where approximately 75% of residents own their homes. In such a society, we should expect little support for government intervention in housing markets because rising home values translate into greater wealth for homeowners. Renters, in contradistinction, are most likely to be impacted by problems of affordability because they satisfy their housing needs on short-term contracts called leases. Renters represent a small share of Spanish society, yet the protests seemingly had widespread support. In Barcelona, estimates from organizers put participation at around 150,000, with smaller protests emerging in more than 40 cities around the country. Despite being a homeowner society, what explains such widespread discontent with housing affordability?

Five frames

Following Dancygier and Wiedemann (2024), I test how competing frames regarding the housing affordability crisis impact willingness to protest. I test five frames in total – one that focuses on affordability alone and four that discuss affordability in relation to possible drivers (e.g., foreign buyers, tourism, and investors). I hypothesize that all four frames will increase willingness to protest among respondents, but that frames that posit concrete out-groups to blame will elicit stronger effects.

• Hypothesis 1: Priming respondents to think about the housing affordability crisis will increase willingness to participate in protest.

While affordability concerns have been politically salient (Held and Patana, 2023; Abou-Chadi et al., 2016), Dancygier and Wiedemann (2024) found that it was frames focusing on institutional investors that had the biggest effect. In Spain, tourist demand for short-term rentals has made AirBnB a lucrative investment, with many have arguing it is a contributing factor to the affordability crisis. This sentiment manifested during recent protests where demonstrators chanted: “Get AirBnB out of our neighborhoods.' Likewise, Spain maintained a “Golden Visa'' program that allowed foreigners to gain residency by purchasing real estate. Foreign buyers have also been at the forefront of conversations about affordability, with many proposing taxes or bans to curb their influence. Some of these foreign buyers are from EU countries, and thus, they do not need to take advantage of a Golden Visa program. However, these foreign buyers from EU countries also add to the problems of housing affordability in Spain. Therefore, I expect that when investors, foreign buyers, and tourism are offered as proximate causes of the affordability crisis separately, this will heighten respondents' willingness to protest.

• Hypothesis 2: Priming respondents to think about the housing affordability crisis as driven by investors will increase willingness to participate in protest.
• Hypothesis 3a: Priming respondents to think about the housing affordability crisis as driven by foreign buyers will increase willingness to participate in protest.
• Hypothesis 3b: Priming respondents to think about the housing affordability crisis as driven by foreign buyers from EU countries will increase willingness to participate in protest.
• Hypothesis 4: Priming respondents to think about the housing affordability crisis as driven by tourism increase will willingness to participate in protest.

Small-Scale Research Support Grant

To seek evidence for my hypotheses, I am designing an online survey experiment and plan to administer it to 2,100 individuals in Spain. This study will soon be possible thanks to ACES’ Small-Scale Research Support Grant, as it aligns with ACES’ Socio-Economic Challenges theme. Housing unaffordability has become an increasingly major issue across the EU, affecting citizens’ decisions to mobilize. Moreover, housing insecurity is a structural consequence of financialized capitalism, where global institutional investors have increasingly commodified residential spaces. As such, this study speaks to ACES’ central question of what type of European integration is necessary to tackle inequality and safeguard social rights. As a result, ACES generously awarded this research with its Small-Scale Research Support Grant, and I expect to have early results in less than one month.