Jeff Bezos has entered the Spanish debate on housing to publicly support the analysis carried out by José Andrés. The founder of Amazon shared this Saturday on X the message from the chef and founder of World Central Kitchen, who had questioned the measures promoted by the Government and identified the insufficient construction of housing as the structural problem that, in his opinion, explains a good part of the access difficulties. "Diagnosis and solution 100% correct. And it's not just in Spain," wrote Bezos.
José Andrés had published a few hours earlier an extensive reflection in which he called for a change of approach. "Spain does not have a problem of lack of decrees. It has a problem of lack of housing," pointed out the chef, who advocated more available land, licenses that can be resolved in months instead of years, greater urban density where possible, legal security, and much more public and private housing. His thesis is that policies that act exclusively on demand or on the existing stock can modify incentives or protect certain groups, but do not increase the number of available houses by themselves.
"More supply, more construction, more houses"
One of the central points of his message is directed against measures that subsidize demand without simultaneously increasing supply. "Subsidizing demand without increasing supply puts pressure on prices. Regulating an increasingly market without building new housing does not eliminate scarcity: it manages it," stated José Andrés. He also questioned the tax changes aimed at certain rental modalities because, as he argued, they can alter the behavior of owners and tenants, but "they also do not put a single brick".
The chef summarized his proposal in three ideas: "More supply. More construction. More houses". In addition, he raised the tone against political leaders and stated that there are leaders who are designing decrees without having, in his opinion, "the preparation or knowledge" necessary to solve the problem. His criticisms were especially directed at the Government, which he accused of preferring to act on existing housing rather than creating the necessary conditions to expand the residential stock.
The reaction of Bezos considerably amplified the message. The American businessman did not develop his own proposal for Spain and limited himself to expressing his agreement with the diagnosis and measures proposed by José Andrés, in addition to pointing out that the housing shortage is not an exclusively Spanish phenomenon. The CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, also supported the central idea of the chef with another message in favor of increasing construction.
The Bank of Spain also warns of a supply deficit
The approach regarding the insufficiency of new housing finds support in the latest analyses of the Bank of Spain, although this does not imply that there is a single possible answer to the problem. The agency estimates that between 2021 and 2025 there was a difference of around 750,000 homes between the creation of new households and completed residential construction, and points out that the supply is reacting slowly to the growth in demand. Among the causes, it identifies the scarcity of buildable land, urban planning delays, lack of labor, low productivity in the sector, and long project execution times.
In 2025, approximately 225,000 households were created, compared to about 92,000 completed homes, according to the Bank of Spain. The agency expects a gradual increase in new construction during 2026, but warns that it would still be moderate compared to the accumulated growth in the number of households. It also reminds that additional factors influence demand, from purchases by non-residents to tourist or seasonal rentals and the demand from young people delaying their emancipation.
This diagnosis partially coincides with that of José Andrés regarding the need to expand supply, although the political debate incorporates other issues such as the protection of vulnerable tenants, regulation of contracts, public housing, or the role of large holders. The Bank of Spain itself maintains that increasing supply requires structural policies and coordination between the State, autonomous communities, and municipalities, the three administrative levels with competencies that influence the residential market.
The message comes after the fall of the two government decrees
The words of José Andrés and the support of Bezos come immediately after one of the most tense weeks of the housing debate. The Government approved on September 29 two royal decree laws: one with measures aimed at reinforcing the social function of housing and expanding the affordable supply, and another focused on increasing the stability of rental contracts. Among other measures, they included temporary restrictions on certain acquisitions, suspension of some evictions of vulnerable people, tax changes, and new rules to extend lease contracts.
However, both texts were rejected this Friday by Congress. The first fell by 178 votes against to 172 in favor, while the second received 184 negative votes and 166 favorable ones. PP, Vox, and Junts voted against both regulations; PNV and Coalición Canaria also rejected the second decree.
This context explains part of the echo of the chef's intervention. While protests for housing demand more protection against evictions and greater contractual stability, José Andrés has shifted the focus to the supply side and has claimed that housing policy should also prioritize large-scale construction. Bezos has adopted that argument, although the businessman’s message constitutes a personal endorsement of the proposal and not a demonstration that increasing construction alone resolves all the issues of access, price, and vulnerability associated with the real estate market.
From criticism of the decrees to a broader recipe
José Andrés does not reject that certain policies can protect specific groups or redistribute costs. His argument is that these measures must be differentiated from those that seek to correct the structural lack of housing. "A lack of housing is not fixed by better distributing the few houses that exist. It is fixed by making many more exist," he stated in his intervention.
The debate is thus divided between measures with more immediate effects, such as tenant protection or contract regulation, and reforms whose results would take years, such as land creation, urban planning acceleration, and the construction of hundreds of thousands of homes. In that second area lies the message that has united this Saturday José Andrés and Jeff Bezos: substantially increasing the residential supply as one of the central pieces to address the housing crisis in Spain.