It Shouldn’t Take the Eviction of an 87-Year-Old to Get Spain’s Housing Crisis Fixed | María Ramírez

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Maricarmen Abascal is a determined woman who uses a wheelchair to get around. She has needed her determination over the years she has spent fighting the real estate company that forced her out of her Madrid apartment last week. She had lived in the flat for more than 70 of her 87 years.

Police forced their way into her apartment after a judge approved Abascal’s eviction. By then, protesters had gathered around the building, including the actor Carlos Bardem, Javier’s brother. Teargas was used against them. Abascal was taken to a Madrid hospital, suffering from anxiety and extreme exhaustion, while her supporters chanted: “You are not alone.”

Demonstrations of solidarity with her and “all the other Maricarmens” have since erupted across Spain, with protest encampments springing up at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid as well as in Bilbao and Málaga.

Thousands of people are evicted from their homes in Spain every year. In the first quarter of 2026 alone there were, on average, 44 eviction orders a day, mostly for disputes about rent. Behind those figures, cases involving single mothers and elderly tenants often come to light. But no eviction has sparked such a public outcry, a national protest movement and a call for urgent political action like the tale of Abascal.

Evictions are actually in decline in Spain and are now about a third of what they were in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In 2014, there were more than 68,000 evictions compared with about 24,000 in 2025. Spain is one of the fastest-growing economies in the west. Employment and consumer data continue to defy the odds despite global economic uncertainty. But many young people and poorer older people surviving on pensions struggle to pay rent or buy a home, especially in the most prosperous cities.

In Abascal’s case, the real estate company Urbagestión bought her apartment in 2018, ending her rent-controlled arrangement. Her rent was initially increased from €500 a month to €2,650, way beyond what her pension could cover.

The Spanish supreme court upheld Urbagestión’s claim that the tenancy was invalid as it had been transferred twice, first to Maricarmen’s mother and later to her. But the original 1956 contract was signed by her father under Franco’s discriminatory laws against women.

As Abascal lay in hospital, the company and her representatives reached an agreement, mediated by Madrid city council, for her to return home. The monthly rent will be similar to the amount she has paid for years, about €500. This is a victory for the activism and solidarity of ordinary citizens who mobilised for a neighbour in need.

But her case reflects how property companies, banks and hedge funds profit from vulnerable tenants and their once-affordable homes. It is also a reminder of the failure of politicians to protect the right to “decent and adequate” housing that has been enshrined in the Spanish constitution since 1978.

The centre-left governing coalition has failed to change the law to protect the most vulnerable tenants from eviction, and to push through comprehensive housing reforms.

On Tuesday, Pedro Sánchez’s minority coalition finally introduced a new housing bill that would ban evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, limit rent hikes for two years and ban investment funds purchasing houses for two years. Now the bill needs to be approved by parliament within a month.

But Sánchez’s reliance on the support of a range of parties since 2023 has limited his room for manoeuvre.

The socialist PM’s leftwing coalition partner, Sumar, had pushed for reforms to prevent cases such as Abascal’s. But Sánchez had shelved the proposals until now, fearing rejection in parliament. The latest uproar is forcing his hand, even if it means including tax breaks sought by Junts, a rightwing nationalist Catalan party.

Madrid’s regional and municipal governments, in the hands of the conservatives, were slow to offer alternatives to Abascal until she was evicted, using the case instead to attack the national government. For the past three years, the Madrid regional government, led by the conservative Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has refused even to apply the existing national law to limit rent increases.

Spain’s highly decentralised system, with power divided at a local, regional and national level, is once again the perfect cover for politicians to do the minimum and blame each other while individuals suffer.

Spaniards repeatedly identify housing as the country’s biggest problem, but the issue has not earned the intense political attention it deserves.

A few days ago, Sánchez visited Zohran Mamdani, who is becoming a point of reference for the left in Spain and across Europe. Instead of trying to imitate the mayor of New York’s videos or his charm, fellow progressives could emulate his relentless focus on housing.

Mamdani supports solutions across the ideological spectrum, from pushing for the construction of new apartment buildings to taxing real estate investment funds. He is supporting public housing and protections for tenants in rent-controlled apartments, but also working with private developers, even exchanging pleasantries with Donald Trump to advance a proposal for a large urban development project over Sunnyside Yard in Queens, New York.

There are no magic bullets on housing. Fixing it will require hard work, smart planning, laser focus and an open mind. Winning progressive politicians have only now started treating this problem with the urgency it deserves.

Will Abascal’s eviction prompt a new era in housing policy in Spain? If it happens, change will have come at a high price. It should not take the forcible eviction of an 87-year-old woman who just wants to remain in her home for the corrosive effects of unaffordable housing to be taken seriously.