Lorraine Williamson
For many people in Spain, the cost of having a stable place to live is no longer a background stress. It is the headline anxiety — the kind that shapes when young adults move out, whether families can upsize, and how much money is left at the end of the month.
A new nationwide survey by Instituto DYM for 20minutos suggests that, right now, three issues dominate public concern: housing, the political climate and immigration. Together, they account for almost two-thirds of first-choice answers.
The numbers in one line
In the DYM poll, 30.7% chose housing as Spain’s biggest problem, followed by the political climate (17.3%) and immigration (16.5%) — 64.5% combined.
Housing: the pressure point that keeps spreading
The housing story is no longer confined to Madrid, Barcelona or the most overheated coastal markets. When prices rise faster than wages, the knock-on effects show up everywhere: later independence for younger adults, crowded flatshares well into the 30s, and families devoting an uncomfortable slice of income to rent.
Official data backs up why this worry feels so immediate. Spain’s national house price index was up 12.8% year-on-year in Q3 2025, with second-hand housing rising even faster than new builds.
And the DYM findings sit inside a wider pattern. The CIS barometer for January 2026 also put housing at the top of the national concerns list, with 42.6% mentioning it.
Politics: pessimism, fatigue — and a sense of drift
Housing may be the daily-life squeeze, but politics is the background noise many people can’t tune out. In the same DYM survey, nearly two in three (63.6%) said they expect the political climate to get worse in 2026.
That matters because political instability tends to spill into everything else — from how quickly housing measures move, to how confidently households and businesses plan for the year ahead.
Immigration: an issue that splits sharply by electorate
Immigration ranked close behind the political climate overall, but the survey suggests the intensity of concern varies widely depending on who people vote for.
Among Vox voters, 51.3% named immigration as their main worry. Among PP voters, immigration was the second most cited issue (22.6%), behind housing. Whereas, among PSOE voters, immigration was much lower (8.5%).
Those gaps help explain why the topic remains so politically combustible: it’s not just disagreement about policy — it’s disagreement about priority.
What this means for everyday life
Surveys like this don’t predict elections. But they do show where the emotional weather is gathering.
Housing worries land first because they are tangible: the apartment you can’t rent, the deposit you can’t save, the landlord’s next increase, the commute you accept because it’s cheaper further out. Politics and immigration then amplify the unease — not always because people share the same views, but because they sense volatility.
Where people can look for practical help
If housing is biting right now, the most useful starting points tend to be local and official:
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Your ayuntamiento (municipal housing office, social housing lists, local support schemes).
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Your autonomous community’s housing portal (public programmes and eligibility).
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Consumer advice services for rental disputes and scams (especially around deposits and “too-good-to-be-true” listings).
The big question for 2026
Spain is entering 2026 with housing anxiety entrenched — and with politics widely expected to worsen. That combination is combustible: it raises the pressure on governments to act, and it raises the risk that other issues get filtered through frustration about housing first.
If there’s a single takeaway from the DYM snapshot, it’s this: people aren’t just worried about what is happening. They’re worried about whether anything will feel stable again — at home, and in the country’s public life.
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