In brief
What the report found
Oxfam Intermón published a report on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, arguing that housing costs are pushing working people in Spain below the poverty line. Using the National Statistics Institute's Living Conditions Survey (INE), the study finds that the working poverty rate moves from 11.48% before housing costs to 15.49% after rent or mortgage payments are subtracted. That shift adds about 770,000 workers to the poor, bringing the total to roughly three million. The organisation describes housing as one of the factors generating the most impoverishment and inequality in the country.
- Before housing costs
- 11.48 %
- After housing costs
- 15.49 %
Data from the article text
Tenants carry the heaviest load
Among workers who rent at market prices, the poverty rate climbs from 19.35% to 34.08% after the rent is paid, and the relative gap has grown by 76%. Tenants on below-market rents start from a more vulnerable position at 23.57%, and end at 31.28%, which is still below the rate for market-rent tenants. Workers with a mortgage move from 7.77% to 10.22%. Owners whose homes are fully paid off barely change, from 8.19% to 7.95%.
- Renters, before housing costs
- 19.35 %
- Renters, after housing costs
- 34.08 %
- Mortgage holders, before housing costs
- 7.77 %
- Mortgage holders, after housing costs
- 10.22 %
- Owners with home paid off, before housing costs
- 8.19 %
- Owners with home paid off, after housing costs
- 7.95 %
Data from the article text
Alejandro García-Gil, head of housing, employment and social policy at Oxfam Intermón, described the pattern in these terms.
“Evictions are the most extreme face of the housing crisis, but not the only one.”
He pointed to people who work and manage to pay their rent or mortgage each month, yet are left without enough income to sustain a decent life.
Families, single parents and migrants
The report identifies the groups most exposed. Poverty among workers with three or more children is close to 40%, and it reaches 29.6% in single-parent households. Among non-EU immigrant workers the rate stands at 31.42%, compared with 8.71% for workers holding Spanish nationality. Oxfam describes the situation as chronic poverty, with rates above 11% despite growth in the country's gross domestic product.
The human cost of housing insecurity was also visible on the same day. Protesters in Madrid blamed property funds for the death of an 87-year-old woman who died in hospital days after being evicted from her home, and they said the lengthy eviction process had damaged her health. A separate Oxfam Intermón study, Habitar la incertidumbre, finds that the incidence of mental health problems doubles among people who spend over 50% of their income on housing, compared with those who spend under 30%.
Madrid's own count
UGT's Madrid branch applies a poverty line of 1,190 euros a month, above the official 1,018 euros used nationally, to reflect the capital's higher cost of living. On that basis the union counts 338,473 people in the region who work yet remain below the threshold. It also counts 180,039 people in severe poverty who earn too much to qualify for the Ingreso Mínimo Vital, whose cap is 733.6 euros a month. The union says fewer than half of severely poor people in Madrid receive the benefit, and that only 123 families receive the regional Renta Mínima de Inserción. It puts 1,253,070 people, or 17.4% of the region's population, below the threshold.
Laura Muñoz, the union's social policies secretary for Madrid, wants poverty measured against the cost of living in the capital.
“What is not measured is not planned, and what is not planned is not protected.”
Election context
The report arrives ahead of the general elections on 29 November. Oxfam Intermón calls on the parties standing to act against inequality through measures that favour decent employment and affordable housing, and to protect the minimum wage increase.