Madrid will become for four days the meeting point of the international movement for the right to housing. From September 24 to 27, tenant unions, neighborhood platforms, and social organizations will celebrate The Neighborhood, a counter-summit conceived expressly as a counterpoint to The District, the large forum of real estate capital that brings together this week at IFEMA investment funds, banks, developers, and asset managers.
The contrast is part of the political strategy of the meeting itself. While at The District they talk about assets, profitability, financing, and new residential formulas, The Neighborhood wants to place at the center the social consequences of those decisions: rent increases, temporary contracts, touristification, expulsion of neighbors, and loss of capacity to decide about the future of cities.
"We do not want the city to be decided in the markets, but in the neighborhoods", the organizers maintain. Their slogan, "Tenants of the world, unite!", summarizes the goal of raising an international structure capable of responding to a real estate market that operates increasingly beyond national borders.
70 organizations against the large funds
The meeting is driven by the *Tenant Union of Madrid, the Confederation of Tenant Unions, and the European Coalition for Action on the Right to Housing and the City (EAC).
According to the call dossier, 70 organizations will participate, most of them based outside Spain. Of these, 55 work specifically in defense of the right to housing and against rent-seeking and speculation. There will also be representatives from labor unions, environmentalism, the anti-racist movement, education, and land defense.
Among the international collectives are London Renters Union, Los Angeles Tenants Union, Living Rent from Scotland, Droit au Logement from France, Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen from Berlin, Renters and Housing Union from Australia, and organizations from Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia.
From Spain, among others, will attend the Tenant Union of Madrid, the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya, various platforms of those affected by mortgages, territorial tenant unions, CGT, CNT, LAB, Ecologistas en Acción, and Regularización Ya.
"They have the international capital. We have the international organization," proclaim the organizers as they describe their confrontation with the model represented by The District.
Two opposing models of the city
The coincidence between both events is not casual. The District brings together from September 22 to 24 more than 15,000 professionals, 450 experts, and representatives from more than 360 firms at IFEMA Madrid. Among its participants are major managers and funds such as Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Norges Bank Investment Management, Tikehau, Nuveen, Starwood, Ardian, and Azora.
During its three days, the sector debates the new cycle of real estate investment, the financing of operations, the growth of institutional renting, flex living, student residences, data centers, or how to make affordable housing attractive to private capital.
The Neighborhood presents the opposing framework. Against housing understood as a financial asset, it defends its consideration as a home and a right. Its demands include regulated prices, stable or indefinite rental contracts, and greater decision-making power for residents regarding the transformation of their neighborhoods.
The organizers also identify coliving, flex living, room rentals, and seasonal contracts as mechanisms that can facilitate price increases and evade the protections associated with permanent residential renting.
The rent strike returns to the debate
One of the central issues will be the recovery of the rent strike as a tool for collective pressure. Organizations from Madrid, Catalonia, Los Angeles, and Lyon will present recent experiences and discuss how to turn individual conflicts —such as a rent increase, a non-renewal, or a threat of eviction— into coordinated responses against the same landlord.
The debate does not yet equate to an international call to stop paying rent. The announced purpose is to exchange organizational methods and study how to expand this type of conflict in light of rising rents and the concentration of housing in the hands of large owners.
The panel on rent strikes will be held on Friday, September 25, at 6:30 PM, at the Fundación Abogados de Atocha in Madrid.
A documentary to show the business from within
The program will kick off on Thursday, the 24th, with the screening of Se nos ha ido de las manos: A safe asset, the documentary by Carles Tamayo and Fernando Cervera that delves into the real estate market from the position of a supposed investor.
The production shows the language and mechanisms used to transform inhabited homes into investment products: the apartments are referred to as "units," the buildings are presented as assets, and homes with families inside are marketed as properties "yielding profit."
After the screening, its creators will participate in a discussion about the functioning of the business and its effects on tenants.
The program will also address European housing policies, price controls, indefinite contracts, the future European affordable housing plan, homelessness, residential segregation, racism, energy justice, touristification, and gentrification.
A declaration to coordinate the European movement
El Barrio continues the International Congress of Tenants' Unions held in Barcelona in 2024, in which collectives from 20 countries participated. That meeting concluded with a declaration advocating for the construction of unions and stable networks of international solidarity.
The participating organizations plan to approve a Madrid Declaration with the roadmap of the European movement for the right to housing for the coming years.
The key will be to see if the document is limited to formulating general demands or if it incorporates concrete commitments: simultaneous campaigns in different cities, coordinated responses against large landlords, international support in local conflicts, or a common strategy on rent strikes.
The outcome will determine whether El Barrio remains as the symbolic counterpoint to The District or becomes the starting point for an international organization capable of confronting the major players in the real estate market.