“Not one more Maricarmen”: Spain’s housing anger boils over

Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Madrid this weekend in a second consecutive night of protests against Spain’s deepening housing crisis, triggered by the high-profile eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman from the apartment she had occupied for seven decades.

On Sunday, activists pitched roughly 100 tents in the capital’s iconic Puerta del Sol square, vowing to remain until authorities address soaring rents and forced removals. The action followed a massive Saturday march that organizers claimed drew more than 300,000 people, though police estimated attendance closer to 25,000. Protesters carried signs reading “We are all Maricarmen” and chanted under the slogan “Ni una Maricarmen más” (“Not one more Maricarmen”), turning the pensioner’s case into a national symbol of tenant vulnerability.

The demonstrations, which also took place in 11 other Spanish cities, place direct pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s center-left government. Protesters accuse both national and regional authorities of failing to curb investment funds, tourism-driven price surges, and inadequate social housing. Amid the unrest, the government is preparing a new housing decree for Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that would introduce measures against forced evictions. The decree would take immediate effect but requires parliamentary approval within 30 days, with negotiations still underway to secure a majority.

A symbol of a broken market

At the center of the outrage stands Maricarmen Abascal, an elderly woman with a disability who was removed from her home in Madrid’s upscale Retiro neighborhood last Wednesday. Images of her being carried out on a stretcher, surrounded by supporters and police, circulated widely and ignited public indignation. Her father first rented the flat in 1956. After her parents’ deaths she remained under a long-standing rent cap. In 2018 an investment fund, Urbagestion, acquired the building and raised the monthly rent from €500 to €2,650 – a more than 400 percent increase. The figure was later reduced to €1,650, still far beyond her means. Courts had blocked her eviction three times previously, yet the final order was executed, prompting the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, Koldo Casla, to intervene and criticize the prioritization of corporate profitability over the right to housing.

Abascal’s story resonates because it crystallizes broader trends. Rents across Spain have risen approximately 80 percent in a decade while house prices climbed 63 percent, according to analyses cited by Spanish media. The Bank of Spain last year estimated a national shortfall of 550,000 homes. Social housing constitutes only about 2.5 percent of the total stock, compared with 14 percent in France and 34 percent in the Netherlands. More than three million dwellings are believed to stand empty. Low-income households now devote nearly 45 percent of their income to rent, well above the 30 percent threshold considered affordable under Spanish law. In Madrid’s urban core the rent-to-income ratio reaches 44.3 percent; in the Balearic and Canary Islands the pressure exceeds 38 percent even outside city centers.

Tourism and foreign investment have intensified the squeeze. Record purchases by non-residents, a boom in short-term holiday lets, and population growth in major cities have pushed long-term tenants outward in successive waves of what experts call “soft gentrification.” Young people remain in parental homes longer, families are displaced from coastal towns to inland villages, and entire neighborhoods see residential stock converted into tourist accommodation. Similar dynamics appear in secondary cities and rural peripheries, where once-affordable rents have risen sharply as demand spills over from saturated urban and coastal markets.

Political fault lines and calls for reform

Demonstrators directed blame at both Sánchez’s national government and conservative regional administrations, particularly Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Critics noted the contrast between Abascal’s eviction and allegations that Ayuso’s administration spent public funds on a luxury penthouse for temporary office use. Chants of “Ayuso’s penthouse for Maricarmen” underscored the perceived inequality. The junior coalition partner Sumar has urged the government to expropriate Abascal’s former apartment and introduce rent freezes. Trade union leaders have called for investment funds to be excluded from the residential market and for tax measures that would make speculative hoarding unprofitable.

Spain already passed legislation in 2023 that strengthened tenant protections and expanded rent-control options, yet several People’s Party-led regions have declined to implement key provisions. An earlier six-year moratorium on certain evictions ended after opposition from the People’s Party, the far-right Vox, and the Catalan party Junts. Sánchez has described Abascal’s removal as “a social tragedy that we cannot accept” and promised swift action. Analysts and rights groups, including Amnesty International Spain, insist that expressions of regret are insufficient and that structural measures—increased social housing construction, tighter regulation of short-term lets, and genuine limits on speculative purchases—are required.

The weekend protests revive themes first voiced during the 15-M Indignados movement fifteen years ago. Housing remains the top concern for many Spaniards, with roughly 25,000 evictions still occurring annually.

29 September promises to be a tense day at Moncloa Palace. At the final cabinet meeting of the month, ministers from the Sumar coalition may either be absent or reject the government’s proposed housing decree unless the relocation of Maricarmen, or an alternative housing solution, is confirmed.

The government is finalizing a new package of regulations designed to ease the housing crisis. Key measures include automatic renewal of rental contracts to prevent landlords from abruptly ending agreements or imposing sharp, speculative rent increases when leases expire. The decree also introduces stricter limits on evictions, offering stronger protections for vulnerable tenants and families at risk of losing their homes. In addition, it aims to curb the influence of “vulture funds” by restricting large investment groups from fueling real-estate speculation and driving up prices.

The image of an 87-year-old woman forced from her lifelong home continues to crystallize a crisis that stretches from Madrid’s central square to the islands and inland villages alike.

Sources: El País, El Mundo, La Razón

Caption: People camp in protest at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain, 27 September 2026. The encampment began on the evening of 26 September following a demonstration over the eviction of Maricarmen, an elderly woman forced to leave the rental home where she had lived for more than 70 years, and calling for measures to address the housing crisis. EPA/BORJA SANCHEZ-TRILLO