The strain between the right to housing and the economic freedoms in Spain after the mortgage crisis

As a reaction to the real estate crisis, several Spanish Autonomous Communities have approved different housing regulations containing intervention measures aimed at enforcing the constitutional right to housing. However, the central Government appealed many of the provisions before the Constitutional Court alleging an encroachment of State powers over the organisation of the economy and over the regulation of the banking sector.

Whereas the Constitutional Court has already ruled on many of the appeals, it has done so from a mainly formal rationale, leaving many of the issues open. This paper seeks to approach the debate suggesting some comments on the balance between economic and social rights.