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Living in a camper van: pensioners and workers in Spain can't afford housing

23.07.2026 02:13 1 min 3 sources
Noticiastrabajo SPA + 2 more
Living in a camper van: pensioners and workers in Spain can't afford housing
Original source: Noticiastrabajo

In Brief

In Spain, a growing number of people, including a pensioner with a 500 euro pension and a civil servant earning 1300 euros, are forced to live in camper vans due to unaffordable housing.

In Spain, more and more people with steady jobs and pensioners are choosing a camper van as their primary residence because of high rental and property prices.

Javier (67), a pensioner with a pension of just over 500 euros, has been living in a 5 sqm camper van for four years after suffering a stroke and losing the ability to pay rent. He admits he will never be able to return to conventional housing. In winter, the van has no safe heating, and he has to sleep in his clothes.

Civil servant José Antonio from Cádiz has been living in a converted Volkswagen Transporter for over a year. With a salary of 1300 euros, he cannot afford rent, the average price of which in provincial capitals exceeds 800 euros.

Teacher Antonio bought a camper van for 30,000 euros because he could not afford rent in Madrid, where housing prices have risen by more than 40% over the last decade. Living in a camper van comes with limitations in space, logistics, and ambiguous regulations governing overnight stays in vehicles.

Aggregated by OpenVan.camp from the public sources listed below, with AI-assisted translation and summary. We always link to the original source. Machine translation may differ from the original -- check the source for important details. Images and content remain the property of their respective owners. Copyright information

Story sources

Javier (67), the pensioner with a €500 pension living in a motorhome: 'I know I will never be able to access a house again'

26.04.2026 Noticiastrabajo SPA Original source

Civil servant from Cádiz lives in a motorhome due to housing prices

19.04.2026 ElHuffPost SPA Original source

Living in a motorhome as an alternative to unaffordable housing

23.03.2026 motorpasion.com SPA Original source

🇪🇸 Spain — fuel prices

Updated: 18.07.2026

Sin plomo 95

$1.84 /l

€1.61 · £1.37/l

109 of 141

pricier than 77% of countries

Sin plomo 98

$2.06 /l

€1.81 · £1.54/l

71 of 94

pricier than 74% of countries

Gasóleo A

$1.88 /l

€1.65 · £1.41/l

111 of 142

pricier than 77% of countries

Gasóleo Premium

$2.05 /l

€1.80 · £1.53/l

22 of 40

pricier than 53% of countries

GLP

$1.22 /l

€1.06 · £0.91/l

45 of 52

pricier than 85% of countries

GNC

$1.71 /l

€1.50 · £1.28/l

9 of 15

pricier than 53% of countries

Cheapest on the map

Popular route

Distance

Fuel cost

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