2023-07-15 02:30:08
Reddish embers pile up in old colorful wooden boats on the beach in the El Palo district of Malaga. The traditional skewers sardines, these typical skewers which have long been the very image of the Andalusian city, located in the far south of Spain, are grilled there, giving off a strong and enticing smell. This traditional dish dates back to the 19th century, when the very poor neighborhood lived mainly from fishing.
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Sitting on the sand, at the hour when the sun goes down, their backs turned to the old low houses, long dilapidated and more and more often renovated by well-to-do and mainly foreign buyers, the people of Málaga still enjoy it, while looking out to sea. Tourists, European expats and other digital nomads, too. Not so long ago, you could find it for 2 euros. Now we have to count double. And more than triple if you get closer to the city center, where tourists and new residents have driven prices up.
A cabin fitted out with a fishing boat to cook sardine “espetos”, the traditional dish of Malaga, over the embers, on June 29, 2023. GUILLAUME PINON FOR “THE WORLD” A fishing boat is used to cook the “espetos” sardines in Malaga, June 30, 2023. GUILLAUME PINON FOR “THE WORLD”
According to the real estate portal Fotocasa, rents jumped 31% between January 2022 and January 2023 in the Mediterranean city – the largest increase in Spain – and exceed 15 euros per square meter on average for modest apartments (17 euros in Palo , 19 euros in the center). Admittedly, the average salary has increased by 14% since 2017, but, at 18,100 euros per year, it remains 3,000 euros below the Spanish average. Far too low, anyway, for an increasingly popular city, where the supply of housing is constantly shrinking: the number of properties for rent has fallen by 27% in 2022.
“We will end up looking like Torremolinos”
“Malaga is fashionable”, summarize the inhabitants, as if that were enough to explain the transformations, the successes, but also the evils from which the city suffers. As if they also hoped that, like all fashions, this one would be temporary.
“People have realized that we live in the best place in the world, believes Paco Leal, son of a fisherman and 77-year-old former florist, in front of the black and white photos hanging on the walls of the neighborhood association, testifying to a bygone past. When I was born here, there were only wooden houses. We didn’t even have running water. So the grilled sardines, it was so as not to starve… Now everything is too expensive. »
“Many foreigners have come to settle in Palo. Many are involved in the neighborhood, but others invest in tourist accommodation. This money, the district does not benefit from it, the businesses close in favor of noisy bars. We will end up looking like Torremolinos”regrets Mercedes Pirez, president of the association of residents of El Palo, in reference to the mass seaside resort of the Costa del Sol.
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