Oxfam Intermón says housing costs leave 770,000 workers in Spain in poverty after they pay market-rate rent. Among working tenants the rate rises from 19.35% before rent to 34.08% afterwards.
Among workers with a mortgage, 10.22% are in poverty after paying the monthly instalment. For those who own their home outright, the rate is 7.95%, according to an Oxfam Intermón report published on 20 October 2026, titled Cuando trabajar no es suficiente: el impacto del coste de la vivienda en la pobreza laboral. Its calculation includes housing costs such as rent and mortgage payments. Property tax is counted too.
The contrast with renters is stark. Based on microdata from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) Living Conditions Survey, the report puts working poverty among people renting at market rates at 19.35% before rent and 34.08% afterwards. That is a rise of almost 15 percentage points: roughly one in three working market-rate tenants is in poverty after paying rent. Oxfam estimates that housing costs push about 770,000 workers below the poverty line.
Housing costs also push Spain’s average working-poverty rate from 11.48%, about 2.2 million workers, before housing expenses to 15.49%, or nearly three million, after them. Alejandro García-Gil, Oxfam Intermón’s lead for social policy, whose remit includes housing and employment, says housing costs are driving impoverishment and inequality. The organisation highlights Madrid and Cataluña, and also points to Región de Murcia, as areas where the impact is pronounced. In Murcia, the working-poverty rate rises from 15.37% before housing costs to 20.23% afterwards; in Cataluña, it increases from about 7.9% to 12.9%.
A Spanish neighbourhood income map based on 2024 tax returns charts household income across more than 36,000 census sections. Oxfam’s figures focus on how housing costs change workers’ poverty rates.
The report describes poverty as becoming entrenched, with rates above 11% despite growth in Spain’s gross domestic product. Families with three or more children face a working-poverty rate close to 40% before housing costs are deducted. The rate is 29.6% in single-parent households. Among workers who migrated from outside the European Union, the figure is 31.42%, compared with 8.71% for workers with Spanish nationality. Separately, EAPN-ES reported that more than 10% of Spain’s population had difficulty paying rent or a mortgage in 2025, using INE Living Conditions Survey data.
Oxfam Intermón is urging parties standing in the general election on 29 November to support decent work and affordable housing. Its proposals include linking minimum-wage increases to the real cost of living, with greater ambition in sectors where working poverty is high. It also calls for action on involuntary part-time work, alongside stronger labour inspections.
The organisation wants better support for low-income self-employed workers and families raising children. It also wants immigrants to have easier access to work. On housing, it calls for a larger public stock of social rental homes and rent caps in areas under pressure.
