A gender approach to housing loss in Spain: the case of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Abstract

In pre-pandemic times, Spain was one of the European countries where the economic crisis hit the real estate market hardest, leading to rising mortgage foreclosures and eviction of tenants, as highlighted by many scholars on the financial geography of housing. Its matched social effects reveal the outstanding role of gender, foreign status, and income levels, starting from the hypothesis that the intersection among these categories shows the dimension of inequality in the neoliberal configuration of cities. The aim of this article is to provide this evidence through the study case of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, using a GIS to implement statistical correlations of these categories on a microurban scale. The created database rests on information contained in judicial archives (women’s foreclosures and evictions) and on ethnicity and income level statistical information. This allows us to go deeper into the factors of exposure to vulnerability, in accordance with an established academic tradition regarding gender, housing and the city.