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| Name | Spain's housing crisis - the families struggling to make ends meet |
| Video Uploader | Video From AP Archive |
| Upload Date | This Video Uploaded At 31-07-2015 10:52:28 |
| Video Discription | (28 Aug 2013) Gleaming new flats in Barcelona - but nobody's at home. Before the financial crisis hit Spain in 2008, the country was on an extended building boom that lasted almost a decade. Brand new skyscrapers, apartment blocks and seaside villas mushroomed around the country while buyers queued outside real estate agencies trying to achieve the Spanish obsession of "owning your own home": Banks lent money freely, frequently offering mortgage applicants more than they said they wanted and often encouraging borrowers to take on more mortgage debt for restoration projects and new cars. People bought homes at ridiculously inflated prices generating an economic growth both local and international media called "the Spanish miracle". But one day the bubble burst and since there was little else in the Spanish productive system to carry the burden of such a large economy, everything imploded in a matter of months. House prices have crashed by more than 30 percent over the last four years and the lending market is virtually frozen. People who bought homes at inflated prices during the boom can no longer pay their mortgages. If a home owner in Spain is unable to make the agreed mortgage payments - through unemployment or low income - he or she can get evicted but also remain liable to repay whatever value is left on the mortgage after the repossession. Since the 2008 property crash, more than 350,000 people have been caught in this trap. There are another 500 evictions a day, according to government figures. Activists have been lobbying for an insolvency law that would allow those who have defaulted on their mortgages to simply turn in the keys to their homes as they do in countries like the United States, freeing them from mortgage debt. This nationwide "anti mortgage" movement started in Catalonia in 2009. Since then the PAH (Mortgage Victims' Platform) have stopped dozens of unemployed home owners and tenants from losing their homes. The leader of PAH is Ada Cola, a former philosophy student who has been long involved in humanitarian and political causes. Cola's expression turns defiant when asked about how she feels fighting such an out of proportion battle against the banking system: "Of course David can fight Goliath. And we are proving it. The citizenship without any type of resources has stopped over 600 evictions ordered by the banks. In Catalonia alone we have occupied six buildings seized by the banks. And dozens of families are now living in them and exercising their right to have a place to live. We are forcing banks to negotiate hundreds of nonrecourse debts and social renting. Of course we can achieve it. No doubt." Damian Scribes and his wife Belen bought this apartment in 2004, when the country's economy was booming and buying a property was a matter of having a pen at hand to sign a contract. Damian was a construction worker but has been unemployed for the last two years. Belen was a telemarketer, she too has been out of work for two years. Between the two they receive 800 euro ( $1068 USD) a month, barely enough to pay the bills, feed their children and send them to school. Damian bought the house on a 30-year mortgage and the day he couldn't meet his repayments, he called the bank to explain his new situation. At that time he still owed 114,000 euros (approx. $152,000 USD) on the mortgage, court fees and interest. If they don't pay off the debt, their children - now seven and three years old - inherit it. The bank's response, Damian says, was that either they continued to pay the rent or feed their children. He and his wife Urimari have three children. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b9254f974d067e97de68412a872e3255 MEo48cmBgaQ |
| Category | News & Politics |
| Tags | AP Archive | 906684 | b9254f974d067e97de68412a872e3255 | (HZ) Spain Housing Crisis | Mariano Rajoy | Spain | Barcelona | Western Europe | Government and politics | Business | Social affairs | Lifestyle | Media |
