19 December 2024
Bilbao Campus
On December 19, the University of Deusto presented the results of the winter 2024 edition if the Deustobarometer Social (DBSoc). According to this biannual survey, which gathers the opinions and preferences of citizens on the issues of greatest concern in Basque society, access to housing has become for the first time the most important problem for Basque citizens, tied with health care (41%).
Thirty-one percent of citizens believe that they will never be able to buy a house and 28% believe that it will take more than 10 years. The culture of ownership is almost unanimous in Euskadi: 91% prefer ownership to renting, 70% believe that renting is throwing money away and 86% that housing is the best form of investment. 84% find no justification for forcible occupation of empty homes and the majority (60%) support the existence of companies that use violent methods to help homeowners recover their homes.
Intervention in the housing market
On the other hand, the majority of citizens support state intervention in the housing market. Thus, they support the declaration of stressed areas to put caps on rents (70%), the construction of social rental housing (86%), that deductions for rent be increased (76%) and that local councils be allowed to free up more land to increase the supply of free housing (75%). Likewise, the majority (76%) would establish a cap so that no one could own more than 2 homes.
Regarding the responsibility for the housing problem, the majority of citizens distribute it among multiple actors and institutions. Investment funds (7.9), the central government (7.6), large property owners (7.5), the Basque Government (7.5) and local councils (7.3) stand out.
More data: Osakidetza has improved its valuation (From 4.4 to 5) and citizens' confidence in the last six months (From 5.2 to 5.8). 84% of Basque citizens believe that climate change influenced the extreme drought that caused more than 200 deaths in the Valencian Community. Concern about the climate crisis rises and surpasses unemployment. And finally, the majority of Basque citizens (64%) believe that the new Basque government has changed little or nothing in the policies of recent years.
The Deustobarometer in 10 facts
Presentation of the Deustobarometer Report Winter 2024
