My little house, however poor it may be

"I had a little house by the sea, I had a flowery garden and a peaceful sky, I had a boat and some nets on the beach and a sweet dawn when I woke up...", thus begins the The Ballad of LucasThe habanera that Joana Pons popularized in Menorca to such an extent that the song is now part of the collective imagination of Menorca, and also of those of us Mallorcans who are occasionally tempted to make a trip to the neighboring island.

We have lived for many years on bucolic scenes, idyllic landscapes, and a misunderstood nostalgia. Owning a small house in rural Mallorca a hundred years ago was not so common. The farmers of that time were friends with their holdings, and if they could afford a peseta, they might manage to get a place in the village. "My little house," they would say, however humble it may be. With time, when money began to flow from the lavish sources of hotels and shops... souvenirs And the bars and restaurants joined the party; everyone, more or less, made a little money. And everyone, more or less, knew how to make their money stretch within what was understood as a more or less empowered middle class.

Mallorca, however, focused its productive efforts on the seafront. New developments were built that concentrated all the tourism on the cliffs, right at water level. The rest of the island, especially the villages, lived with their backs turned to all of that. They were two completely separate lifestyles. How to say: "We know where we should make the money, but we don't want to be stuck with the pebbles." Everything was concentrated in two peak months of the season, with 100% employment. Three, at most. There was talk of "de-seasonalizing" tourism and "cultural tourism," as one talks about distant pipe dreams, with the idea of lightening the summers of human burden.

But the money trickles. They're in on it. And today, many of the grandchildren of hunger, many of the children of prosperity, have easily acquired a house, or two, or three. They're no longer just little houses. Many forgo a holiday by the sea if they can use their little house for tourist rentals. And those who own one in the village are happy to leave it empty for a couple of months if they can immediately rent it out for 500 euros a weekend. We already have the democratized tourism industry, end-of-year tourists, cars and bicycles on every road, and there are still those who find that it's not enough.

And if, instead of a house, they've inherited an apartment, or have been able to buy one early, they rent it out without a second thought for 1,000 euros, 1,500, 2,000... "we shouldn't be fools," and they look for a nurse from Valencia, or a teacher from Tarragona. Today, here in this garden of monetary delights, there are too many people who are never satisfied, who never have enough, and who, for a price, still portray themselves as victims of so many things that happen to them, "because of the Moors, who come to take our jobs."

And when it comes to selling, of course, in the free market where we so enjoy living, we sell to the highest bidder. According to the Housing Portal of the Spanish Council of Notaries, the price of houses and apartments in the Balearic Islands has risen by 15 percent in the last year. The average age of buyers is 49 (don't even think twice, young man, about being able to buy anything). Fifteen percent of purchases have been made in the name of legal entities. Does anyone living near your house own a legal entity? Four out of six houses have been sold to foreigners. A third of those buyers are non-resident Germans.

We have turned Mallorca into a paradise of absurdity, an Eden for wealthy outsiders where the natives despise and reject the cheap labor that has allowed them to build the money-making machine that has lifted them out of the misery in which their ancestors lived. We have turned housing into a business within a block lined with mansions. low-cost With a pool and a barbecue. But it turns out that people who work (on a payroll, legally, without any underhanded dealings), if they don't have a patron, if they don't have someone to back them up, if they don't have a lifeline inheritance, can't make ends meet, because more than half their salary goes toward the rent they have to pay.

It's obvious, but it needs to be said: the housing problem is widespread: young people who want to move out, civil servants and professionals who don't want to come work here so they don't have to spend half their salary on rent; working families who can't make ends meet; newly arrived families who can't find a place to live... everyone is affected by the same problem.

And that's why, dear reader, this is no longer about right or left. When housing is needed, it's the state that must provide it. We can't relinquish control of housing prices and access to the free market, especially since we've turned houses into a business. Decisive action is needed: social housing, price-controlled housing, all in industrial quantities and built on urban land, so we can't pretend there isn't any available (when will there be a census of undeveloped plots and empty houses?); limits on sales to foreign citizens based on length of residency; a ban on tourist rentals across the entire island, stepping on every middle-class scruple necessary; rent control; penalties for owners of empty houses. And everything else necessary so that working people don't feel like fools.