Thousands of people gathered in Madrid on Sunday to call for more affordable housing, as locals express frustration over being priced out of the market.

Marching under the banner "Housing is a right, not a business," residents of the Spanish capital demanded reduced rental prices and improved living conditions.

According to the Spanish government, around 12,000 people participated in the demonstration.

As the second-most visited country globally after France, Spain is expected to welcome approximately 95 million visitors this year, twice the country’s population, The Independent reports.

“Spaniards cannot live in their own cities. They are forcing us out of the cities. The government has to regulate prices, regulate housing,” stated nurse Blanca Prieto.

In July, the government unveiled plans to regulate short-term and seasonal holiday rentals. It intends to examine listings on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com to ensure that they possess the necessary licences. 

Spain faces the challenge of promoting tourism, which is vital for its economy, while also responding to citizens’ worries about skyrocketing rents caused by gentrification and landlords opting for more profitable tourist accommodations.

Authorities are promoting the growth of luxury hotels as part of their efforts to combat the rise in holiday rentals.

While the hotel industry has previously encountered local restrictions on expansion, it is now viewed as a promising opportunity for attracting high-end tourism.

Over the summer, residents have protested, attributing the escalating costs of housing and overcrowded city streets to the surge in short-term holiday rentals. This has sparked a contentious debate on how to regulate one of the key drivers of the economy.

Earlier this year, Barcelona, the Spanish city that attracts the most foreign visitors, and Tenerife in the Canary Islands implemented a ban and stricter regulations on tourist apartments, respectively, with the goal of significantly reducing their availability.

In addition, residents of the Canary Islands and Málaga have held protests this year against the increasing number of tourist rentals. Seasonal hospitality workers in these popular tourist destinations are finding it difficult to secure housing, with many having to sleep in caravans or their cars.