Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Ilya Maximov
[Regnum] Spain is once again rocked by mass protests. This time, the cause is not the migration issue, but a severe housing crisis.
The eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid home sparked discontent among thousands of Spaniards. In response, Pedro Sánchez's government could think of nothing better than to plunge the country into chaos.
Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, has lived in her Madrid apartment for almost her entire life—71 years. Her father rented the place back in 1956, and after her parents' death, the lease passed to her.
The previous owners voluntarily decided to allow the elderly woman to continue renting the space under favorable terms by today's market standards. The last lease agreement was signed in 2008, with a monthly rent of 500 euros.
However, in 2018, the building was acquired by the investment fund Urbagestión, and the rent skyrocketed from €500 to €2,650 per month. The new owner later lowered it to €1,650, but the pensioner couldn't afford to pay that much—her pension is only €1,350.
On September 23, police evicted the woman on her fourth attempt. The previous three attempts had been blocked by the courts, but the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the owner.
Getting the Spanish woman to leave the premises wasn't easy—protesters blocked the area around her building, the staircase leading to her apartment, and even barricaded themselves inside the home with the pensioner. All these measures only succeeded in delaying the police, and they ultimately accomplished their task.
They had to carry Abascal out on a stretcher. She was hospitalized in a state of stress and exhaustion.
The story was widely covered in the media and on social media, bringing thousands of people out onto the streets.
Some protesters pitched tents in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, their informal slogan: "Either the rentier economy or the government will fall." Initially, there were only a dozen tents, but by Monday there were already over three hundred.
Similar camps also sprang up in Seville, Málaga, Santiago de Compostela, and Palma, with protests also taking place in Ávila, Barcelona, Cádiz, Oviedo, Seville, and Valencia. Participants chanted, "The investors are to blame, the government is responsible!"
Young people have become the driving force behind the protests. Marina Martín, a 25-year-old nurse, explained to El País: " It's impossible to buy a home, and renting one is very difficult. All the money goes toward rent, leaving almost nothing for other expenses."
And a 26-year-old student protester told The Guardian that young Spaniards were "fed up with weak measures that solve nothing."
As a result, Maricarmen Abascal was able to reach an agreement to return home and reduce her rent to the previous €500 under a new eight-year contract. Her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, called this "the result of social mobilization."
Naturally, there were those who were unhappy with this decision. "I just want to know at what age I can stop paying the landlords and continue living in my apartment. Maybe then I'll even join the next tenants' protest," said Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the autonomous community of Madrid, with bitter irony, speaking out in defense of property owners' rights.
However, the cancellation of the eviction did not end the protests – the problem is much broader.
According to Idealista, the country's largest real estate portal, the average rental price in the country has nearly doubled over the past 10 years: from €7.6 per square meter in 2015 to €15.1 in August 2026. In 2025, 44.3% of Spaniards aged 26–34 were still living with their parents, with almost half of them due to inability to afford housing.
Furthermore, the Bank of Spain estimates that the country is short 700,000 homes. More than 50% of the shortage is concentrated in major cities and tourist hubs: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, and Málaga. Meanwhile, millions of homes are empty in declining rural areas, where there are no jobs, so there is no demand.
Amid ongoing protests, the Socialist government, already under public pressure over the migrant crisis in Ceuta, has approved a package of measures aimed at protecting the interests of tenants.
"The time has come to intervene in the speculative housing market and begin to restore the balance between ordinary citizens and vulture funds," Health Minister Monica García said in this regard.
The cabinet's proposals include a ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, automatic renewals of expired leases until 2028, and a two-year ban on home purchases by investment funds. Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez called this "an agreement of enormous social significance" that addresses "the main problem facing Spaniards."
However, in reality, this is a restriction on private property, which will prevent owners from managing their property based on their own interests. In other words, the problems of some citizens are being solved by disenfranchising others, but the minister chose to remain silent about this.
The Spanish authorities apparently have no time to think about long-term consequences—elections are just around the corner, so the main thing is to satisfy the protesters and portray a bold and effective solution, and then let the grass grow.
The law, although approved by the cabinet, has not yet been passed—it still awaits a parliamentary vote. And here the government faces serious problems, as the initiative faces considerable opposition, and Sánchez's party doesn't have a majority.
People's Party leader Alberto Nunes Feijóo said the proposals would not produce the desired result and that "no one can solve a problem they have created for eight years with legislation whose only purpose is to extend a fruitless parliamentary term."
Miriam Nogueras, a representative of the Together for Catalonia party, accused the authorities of endangering small business owners in order to solve their problems.
Renowned Spanish journalist, television presenter, and writer Vicente Valles criticized the government's haste in proposing the new measures. "This is being done in haste, when we're already approaching the end of the legislative term and when the housing promises made over the past eight years have yielded no results," he noted.
According to economist Niño Santiago Bercerra, the current problem can only be solved by building new housing, not by passing any laws. "If supply doesn't increase, the problem won't be solved. Any decrees or laws will only be temporary measures to appease public opinion," the newspaper Vozpopuli reports him as saying.
As for the upcoming "triumph of socialism," even if it does occur, given Spain's other realities, it will approach anarcho-socialism—albeit not yet on a national scale, but only in the housing sector. The government is unwilling to take responsibility for building social housing, and instead is depriving property owners of their legal rights in favor of those it deems most in need.
Worse still, the state not only restricts property owners but also fails to protect them from the arbitrary actions of squatters—people who illegally occupy other people's property. These squatters exploit loopholes in the law, and for a long time now, thousands of egregious incidents have occurred annually in the country.
In 2025, a new law was passed that finally limited squatters' options by introducing expedited court procedures. However, in reality, the ideal remains far from being achieved—the law still contains loopholes that allow for the brazen seizure of other people's property.
Moreover, evicting tenants costs the owner time, stress, and considerable money. Estimates suggest that expedited court proceedings cost between €2,500 and €8,000, while standard proceedings cost between €6,000 and €20,000.
The Sánchez government's migration initiatives appear no less strange against the backdrop of the current crisis. Spaniards are unable to afford housing, let alone buy it, or even rent it, which is in dire shortage. Meanwhile, the country is legalizing hundreds of thousands of migrants and promising to invite even more.
The Vox party openly states that legalizing half a million undocumented immigrants will exacerbate the pressure on the "absolutely strained and inaccessible" housing market. Senator Paloma Gómez Enríquez emphasized: "Public administration is not about ideological activism at the borders, but about defending the rule of law, sovereignty, and public services for Spaniards."
If the government's proposal is adopted, the Spanish housing market will be dominated by renters and squatters, not bona fide owners. One can only guess what new crises this situation might eventually lead to.
With the security of real estate investments becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee, owners may begin to sell their assets en masse, potentially triggering a market collapse and, as a consequence, a serious economic crisis.
Warnings are already being heard that the ban on investment funds purchasing residential property and automatic contract renewals are creating legal uncertainty, pushing owners to sell rather than rent. This, in turn, could lead to a collapse in prices and a devastating impact on the entire economy.
"If it seems like every new decree reduces the owner's decision-making power, many will choose not to rent out their homes or seek alternatives outside the traditional real estate market," real estate expert Inki Unsain told Infobae.
Moreover, excessive legal protection for tenants is likely to create a boomerang effect: as uncertainty increases, landlords will sharply tighten their requirements, requiring bank guarantees or proof of income that significantly exceeds the rent.
As a result, it will be young people and other vulnerable groups, whom the decree is formally intended to protect, who will be forced out of the market. This will only deepen the social crisis and increase tensions within society.
"The problem is that landlords are reluctant to rent out their properties because they're afraid, especially now that the eviction suspension is becoming permanent. This only makes the market more restrictive, exacerbating the housing crisis," says Yogi Tadhani, regional manager of fintech platforms Finteca and Prestalo.
Spain is facing an experiment that could have long-term devastating consequences. The country now risks not resolving the crisis, but deepening it—with heightened social tensions and economic instability, as well as further increases in housing prices.
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