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Rising rents threaten Madrid’s independent bookshops
Independent bookshops in Madrid face an increasingly specific concern: how long they can remain in their premises. Rising rents no longer affect only housing or central bars; they also threaten neighbourhood cultural spaces that serve as meeting points for readers, residents and authors.
According to a survey by the Asociación de Librerías de Madrid, more than 80% of these businesses occupy rented premises. Only 14.3% have their continuity guaranteed, and 41% acknowledge a high or very high risk of losing their space in the next two years.
The problem is better understood through specific cases. In Chueca, Librería Berkana has been open since 1993 and has seen the neighbourhood change completely. Its manager, Mili Hernández, recalls that the rent went from 125,000 pesetas to 2,700 euros a month, after even reaching 4,500 euros. With figures like these, any further increase could put the business out of the game.
In Arganzuela, Librería Balqís also works with very tight margins. Beatriz Martín pays 2,000 euros a month and explains that a bookshop’s profit rarely exceeds 30%. Her contract ends in three and a half years, but uncertainty about the market already weighs on every decision.
Lavapiés faces similar pressure. Librería Grant, run by Sergio Bang, has just turned 12 and devotes more than a third of its profits to rent. Even so, the project has chosen to grow with a new bookshop near Retiro, a decision combining risk, vocation and confidence in the bond with readers.
In the Salamanca neighbourhood, Librería Pérgamo faces the end of its contract with a similar concern. Its manager, Pablo Cerezo, estimates that rent takes around 60% of its earnings and warns that property prices respond more to the logic of investment and tourism than to the neighbourhood’s everyday life.
The pressure already has consequences. One in three bookshops has given up hiring staff, reduced investment or is even considering closing. The Asociación de Librerías de Madrid points out that to cover rent of 1,500 euros, a business would need to sell more than 300 books a month just to pay for the premises.
Losing bookshops does not only mean losing businesses. It means being left without reading clubs, presentations, debates, carefully curated shop windows and places where cultural life happens at neighbourhood scale. The question now is whether the city can protect those spaces before rent drives them from the streets where they still create community.