Spain Freezes Evictions by Investment-Fund Landlords After Protests Over 87-Year-Old Tenant

Spain’s socialist-led government approved a decree that pauses evictions in investment-fund-owned flats until 2030.

The decision, which also lets tenants of small landlords stay longer and caps rent rises at 2 percent, followed protests triggered by the forced removal of 87-year-old woman Maricarmen Abascal from her home.

Police evicted Abascal on Sept. 23 from her Madrid home of more than seven decades. The apartment in the capital’s affluent Retiro neighbourhood was bought by the investment fund Urbagestion, which sought a significant rent increase that Abascal could not afford.

“I’ve lived here for 71 years, and I don’t want to leave,” Abascal told reporters on the eve of the eviction.

Abascal’s lawyer told the BBC on Sept. 30 that she can now return to the property. 

Beatriz Duro said at a press conference there had been “goodwill from both parties” and that she would pay a similar amount of rent under a new contract and not pay the increased amount.

The eviction sparked a scene outside the building, where police forcibly removed protesters blocking the entrance.

Pedro Sánchez, the head of Spain’s main socialist party, who has been Prime Minister since 2018, said in a Sept. 29 post on X that the decree was a “unique opportunity to turn every house back into a home, the foundation for building a life project and a right within reach of all.”

Released on Sept. 29, the government’s decree said that Abascal is a symbol of a broken right to guarantee her housing.

If it passes, the decree takes effect from Oct. 1 and will suspend evictions until 2030 for vulnerable tenants with nowhere else to go when the landlord is an investment fund.

It also said that investment funds whose business includes buying property may not acquire homes for less than 70 percent of appraised market value. 

For small landlords, tenants on current home leases that run out before the end of 2028 can stay up to two extra years, and rent rises are capped at 2 percent through 2027. 

Congress still has to ratify it this Friday.

Health Minister Monica Garcia said ​the ruling Socialists reached an agreement with junior partner Sumar on Tuesday for the new measures.

Junts, the Catalan pro-independence party that would need to back the decree for it to pass, said on Tuesday it was still far from agreeing on all measures and wanted protection for small landlords, who make up the vast majority of property owners in Spain.

“We all agreed that evictions, where the property is owned by a fund, a ​vulture fund, run by someone managing ​millions of euros, obviously need ⁠to be stopped,” Junts parliamentary spokesperson Miriam Nogueras told the Spanish broadcaster RTVE on Tuesday.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s opposition People’s Party, criticised the move.

“Eight years without solving housing, and now the government wants two contradictory rules. If these decrees pass, no vulnerable person will be able to rent a home in Spain again. We will not support this trap,” he wrote in a Sept. 30 post on X.

On Sept. 23, the Bank of Spain Deputy Governor Soledad Núñez said that since 2021, an estimated shortfall of about 755,000 homes has built up, and that gap could widen by another 300,000 between 2026 and 2028.

Reuters contributed to this report.