Spain’s left-wing coalition government has announced measures to ban evictions until 2030 to address the country’s housing crisis, after the forced removal of an 87-year-old woman last week triggered mass protests. The new measures, including rolling over contracts and banning so-called vulture funds from the housing market, will be divided into two decrees to be voted on Friday in parliament, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority left government will face an uphill battle to secure support. Spain’s housing crisis has driven a sharp political and social split between renters and property owners, with critics saying the proposed measures risk unfairly lumping small landlords who rely on rental income together with profit-driven real estate companies.
Health Minister Monica Garcia has framed parliament’s approval as non-negotiable, after a similar decree seeking to roll over rental contracts was blocked in April by right-leaning parties. The eviction of wheelchair user Maricarmen Abascal, who was removed from her home of more than seven decades on a stretcher last week, drew more than 10,000 protesters to the streets. Abascal was living in the property in Madrid’s central Retiro neighbourhood under a rent-capped lease contract signed by her father in the 1950s.
The property was then bought by the real estate and investment firm Urbagestion in 2018. Urbagestion sought to terminate Abascal’s contract and evict her after raising her rent from 500 euros ($572) to 2,650 euros ($3,010) – nearly double her pension of €1,350 ($1,533) a month – according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. When the police carried out her eviction on their fourth attempt on September 23, hundreds of activists who had been protesting against her losing a home she had lived in her entire life were waiting outside.
The videos of Abascal’s personal struggle made the rounds on social media, turning the 87-year-old into a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis. Spontaneous demonstrations began the same day in front of a controversial luxury penthouse that the Madrid regional government, led by Isabel Diaz Ayuso of the conservative People’s Party (PP), recently purchased for unclear purposes. Protesters cried out: “Ayuso’s penthouse for Maricarmen!” and “Shame!
Shame!” The platform #Niundesahuciomas (Not One More Eviction) called for simultaneous protests in Avila, Barcelona, Cadiz, Oviedo, Sevilla and Valencia. Speaking at the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly, Sanchez, of the Socialist Party, described evictions as “a social tragedy that we cannot accept as a country” and blamed the local and regional governments of Madrid led by the People’s Party (PP). Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez Garcia said that the eviction “evidences the consequences of savage speculation and of rolling out the red carpet to the vultures and the speculators”.
According to data collected by the Bank of Spain reported by El Pais, real estate wealth now exceeds €7.4 trillion ($9.53 trillion), but the gains are far from evenly distributed. Property wealth is highly concentrated, with the richest 10 percent of households owning about one-third of all real estate wealth, while the bottom half owns only about 15 percent. Additionally, the number of owners with two, five or more properties was found to have risen significantly, while the share of small owners with just one property declined.
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