TENS of thousands of citizens marched through Barcelona on Saturday, calling for a rent strike as they protested against rocketing housing costs in the city.

Protesters cut off traffic on main avenues in the city centre, holding up homemade signs reading “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living” and “The people without homes uphold their rights.”

Organisers said that over 170,000 had turned out to protest.

The throngs of people clogging the streets recalled the massive separatist rallies at the height of the Catalan independence movement the previous decade.

The average rent for Spain has doubled in last 10 years. The price per square metre has risen from €7.20 (£5.90) in 2014 to €13 (nearly £11) this year, according to the popular online real estate website Idealista. 

The growth is even more acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. 

Incomes meanwhile have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.

Protester Samuel Saintot said he is “frustrated and scared” after being told by the owners of the apartment he has rented for the past 15 years that he must vacate the premises in Barcelona’s city centre. 

He said: “I consider myself a very fortunate person, because I earn a decent salary. But even in my case, I may be forced to leave town.”

Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for Barcelona’s Tenants Union, which helped organise the protest, said that renters should consider a rent strike as part of a mass protest movement.

“I think we the tenants have understood that this depends on us. That we can’t keep asking and making demands to the authorities and waiting for an answer. We must take the reins of the situation.”

She added: “So, if they [the owners] won’t lower the rent, then we will force them to do it.”