House prices soar by 80 percent in one year in Catalan town, Spanish doctors prepare February strike and more news on Monday January 12th.
House prices soar by 80 percent in one year in Catalan town
A town on the Tarragona coast in Catalonia, Vandellós y Hospitalet del Infante, has seen property prices rise by up to 80 percent in the space of a single year.
The town of 7,000 makes a more extreme example of the rate at which house and rental prices in Spain have soared in recent years. Property prices rose by 12.8 percent in 2025, more than double the European average.
In Vandellós y Hospitalet del Infante, locals have also seen an influx of foreign residents and Spaniards from across Spain moving in. “Many people come here, foreigners too, Belgians and French people looking to retire. Then there are also many from Zaragoza, Huesca, Andorra,” one told Spanish media.
Spanish doctors prepare February strike
Spanish doctors are set for further walk-outs in February in action that will be “much more intense” and could include indefinite strikes, according to an announcement made by unions.
A strike committee, made up of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) and the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA), this week was joined by four other organisations: Metges de Catalunya, Amyts, O’MEGA and the Basque Medical Union, to outline the industrial action.
New protests and walkouts could begin in 2026 in rejection of a drafted legal change being prepared by the Ministry of Health, which already caused several strikes throughout Spain last year. The six unions staged the “union alliance” to outline the walk-outs, though without specifying dates for now.
Indefinite strike is also still on the table: “We are not ruling out any measures,” a spokesperson said.
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Spanish police evicts squatters who entered home before new owners moved in
Spanish police swooped in and evicted a number of okupas — squatters in English — that had broken into properties in a newly built housing development just 48 hours before the new owners were due to move in.
The properties, in the Madrid town of Cobeña, were squatted by up to 20 people, including families with children, after they jumped the fence, broke the padlock and gained access to various houses. Some even went so far as to change the locks on the houses, Spanish media reports suggest.
Following a tip-off from neighbours on the street, the Civil Guard took action and evicted them, freeing up homes for the new owners.
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Spain says Mercosur deal builds EU ‘strategic autonomy’
Spain has celebrated the approval by EU nations of a vast trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur, championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers.
The deal is “strategic for Spain and Europe, who not only expand their network of partners and access to new markets, but also strengthen their strategic autonomy”, the Spanish economy ministry said in a statement.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose country maintains strong ties with Latin America, wrote on X that the agreement would “forge shared prosperity” with a “sister region”.
Spain wants to bring Venezuela government and opposition closer together
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said Spain wanted to “contribute to bringing positions closer together” in Venezuela after a US military operation last weekend captured leader Nicolas Maduro.
“We want to stand by the country in this new chapter and contribute to bringing positions closer together,” Sánchez wrote on X, saying he conveyed the message to Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez and exiled opposition figurehead Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
Maduro was declared the winner against Gonzalez Urrutia in 2024 presidential elections which the opposition condemned as fraudulent, providing detailed voting records to back the claim that their candidate had won.
With additional reporting from AFP.
