https://sagire.online/topic/housing/ Rolling analysis and coverage of geopolitics, energy, security and supply chains. en Thu, 05 Nov 2026 03:25:00 -0300 https://sagire.online/wire/a3df70e3/https://sagire.online/wire/a3df70e3/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 18:23:00 -0300Unions and housing-rights associations from seven European countries, meeting in Paris, called for coordinated demonstrations against the cost of living for November 20, 21 and 22. Organizations from France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Greece and Belgium are taking part, and they hope to bring “millions” of people into the streets. Their demands include guaranteeing public services such as education, healthcare and public housing, defending the “right to work” without “excluding migrants,” “taxing the rich” and an “end to rearmament policies” and to the expansion of “fossil fuels.” In Spain, the death of 87-year-old pensioner Maricarmen Abascal after an eviction in September triggered a wave of protests and led Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call early legislative elections for November 29; the country’s main unions have called a general strike for November 11. In the European Union, housing prices rose more than 60% between 2010 and 2025 and rents by about 29%.European UnionSpainEuropeProtestsHousingElections https://sagire.online/wire/b8bebeda/https://sagire.online/wire/b8bebeda/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 15:24:00 -0300Protests against the cost of living and rent prices began with the occupation of a square in the city of Porto three weeks ago, where demonstrators set up tents, and were repeated at Rossio Square in Lisbon. This weekend, Lisbon’s administrative court authorized the occupation of Rossio to remain until November 24. Housing costs in Portugal rose 41.5 percent from 2020 to 2025, the largest increase in the whole European Union, whose average rise was 3.2 percent in the period, according to the Pordata portal.PortugalHousingProtests https://sagire.online/wire/19d768b7/https://sagire.online/wire/19d768b7/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 06:23:00 -0300Spanish police cleared the housing protest camp at Madrid's Puerta del Sol in the early hours of Tuesday, and municipal cleaning staff swept away remaining debris, tents and tarpaulin in the morning. The central government delegation in the Madrid region said the eviction took place overnight “without incident or episodes of violence”, with 334 people removed and two arrested. Firefighters, social services and 400 national and municipal police officers took part in the operation. In a post on Telegram, protest organisers called it “a violent police operation” that left several people injured after being hit or as a result of tear gas. The camp began on September 26, after the eviction and subsequent death of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, who had lived seven decades in the same home. Major unions called a general strike for November 11 in defence of housing and wages sufficient to afford it.SpainHousingProtests https://sagire.online/wire/c41e66d3/https://sagire.online/wire/c41e66d3/Sun, 01 Nov 2026 16:22:00 -0300Police clashed with protesters in Portugal after thousands demanded that the government scrap a proposed law that they say would deepen the country's housing crisis, Al Jazeera reported.PortugalProtestsHousingEurope https://sagire.online/wire/7f110713/https://sagire.online/wire/7f110713/Sun, 01 Nov 2026 03:22:00 -0300Dozens of officers, some accompanied by police dogs, moved into Rossio Square at about 4:30 a.m. GMT on Sunday to disperse a housing encampment, a day after thousands marched in Lisbon demanding that the government withdraw a rental bill, according to Al Jazeera. Protesters had erected more than 50 tents following Saturday’s march in the capital. The intervention followed operations in the same squares the previous Sunday, when police arrested 25 people in Lisbon and six in Porto.PortugalHousingProtestsEurope https://sagire.online/wire/22aa116c/https://sagire.online/wire/22aa116c/Thu, 29 Oct 2026 08:22:00 -0300Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee apologized on Thursday and announced that his housing secretary, Winnie Ho, had resigned, after an investigation into the city’s deadliest fire in decades found inadequate regulatory oversight, according to France 24. The fire began last November, engulfed seven buildings in an apartment complex in a northern suburban district, killed 168 people and displaced thousands, France 24 reported. According to the South China Morning Post, the report attributed the blaze to a combination of a lit cigarette and an abundance of combustible materials, and concluded that contractor PC&E and consultant Will Power were fully aware of the fire risks.ChinaEast AsiaHousing https://sagire.online/wire/c5835dab/https://sagire.online/wire/c5835dab/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:22:00 -0300Thousands of people rallied in Lisbon, Porto and other Portuguese cities on Tuesday evening, Deutsche Welle reported. Demonstrators vow to continue their campaign for affordable housing after police cleared tent camps and arrested at least 55 people.PortugalHousingProtestsEurope https://sagire.online/wire/8f962956/https://sagire.online/wire/8f962956/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:23:00 -0300Hours after police cleared their camps in Lisbon and Porto and arrested 55 people, thousands of protesters returned to two central squares to demonstrate against an intensifying housing crisis, according to Al Jazeera. Activists have demanded that the centre-right government withdraw a bill that makes evictions easier and ends rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading.PortugalHousingProtestsEurope https://sagire.online/wire/2853621a/https://sagire.online/wire/2853621a/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:23:00 -0300Egyptian construction firms surveyed sites in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip for a housing project dubbed “Green Rafah”, Egyptian sources told Middle East Eye. The proposed neighbourhood would initially house around 20,000 Palestinians and be supervised by a multinational force expected to be deployed in several parts of the Gaza Strip under the Sharm el-Sheikh peace agreement.GazaPalestineEgyptHousingConflict https://sagire.online/wire/f4720eed/https://sagire.online/wire/f4720eed/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 06:25:00 -0300Some Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced as many as eight times, according to Karl Baker, regional crisis coordinator for the Gaza response at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Materials needed for stronger roofing, concrete floors and more substantial walls are affected by Israel’s “dual-use” restrictions over security concerns, according to TRT World.GazaIsraelHuman rightsHousing https://sagire.online/wire/5e7aaebc/https://sagire.online/wire/5e7aaebc/Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:24:00 -0300Israeli forces demolished between 50 and 80 homes and a mosque belonging to a Bedouin Palestinian clan on Monday, leaving about 250 people homeless, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the demolitions began late on Sunday near the city of Rahat after an Israeli court rejected a request to postpone the orders.IsraelHuman rightsHousingConflict https://sagire.online/wire/79512723/https://sagire.online/wire/79512723/Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:22:00 -0300Thousands of people marched in Madrid in homage to Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman who became a symbol of the struggle against evictions, in a march from Sol to her former home, according to laSexta. The Government Delegation put the number of participants in the housing protest at 20,000. The three-kilometer route featured banners such as “el rentismo mata” and the chant “no son muertes, son asesinatos”, with events also in Valencia, Seville and Santander.SpainEuropeHousingProtests https://sagire.online/wire/fedbb056/https://sagire.online/wire/fedbb056/Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:29:00 -0300Madrid’s tenants union announced the death of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections. Abascal was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years in September after she was unable to afford rent increases. The apartment had been purchased by an investment firm that sought to hike her rent by 230%, according to The Guardian. The wave of outrage led Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election after rightwing and far-right parties voted down two emergency decrees.SpainEuropeHousingProtestsElections https://sagire.online/wire/cb28ba6f/https://sagire.online/wire/cb28ba6f/Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:22:00 -0300Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for 29 November after a parliamentary defeat, according to the BBC. The conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox voted against the government’s housing measures, which sought to prevent the eviction of tenants. Sánchez called for voters to mobilise for a much bigger progressive majority to defeat the elites and conquer social rights.SpainEuropeElectionsPolitical crisisHousing https://sagire.online/wire/eff90f69/https://sagire.online/wire/eff90f69/Mon, 05 Oct 2026 04:20:00 -0300Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a snap general election in a televised address on Monday morning, three days after right-wing parties torpedoed emergency housing legislation, according to The Guardian. The announcement followed Parliament's rejection of housing relief measures, according to Al Jazeera.SpainEuropeElectionsPolitical crisisHousing