SPAIN’s coalition government has finally approved a hard-fought package of housing measures after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman sparked a wave of protests across the country.
The two decrees, green-lit by the cabinet on Tuesday, include protections against evictions until 2030 and a ban on investment firms from buying homes until 2028.
If also rubber-stamped by parliament in an extraordinary vote on Friday, the measures could benefit up to five million tenants across Spain, health minister Monica Garcia has said.
“What was unimaginable just a month ago, we have achieved today,” she wrote on X.
“This is the time to intervene in the speculative housing market and start redressing the balance between citizens and vulture funds,” Garcia added.
According to the minister, the measures also include the automatic rolling over of contracts until 2028 and tighter regulation of short-term and room rentals.
Rent increases would be frozen at rates calculated monthly by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), preventing landlords from adding anything on top.
Finally, the decrees would introduce tax breaks for low-income tenants and landlords who rent their properties at below-market rates.
The raft of new proposals comes amid political turmoil after Maria del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, was forced from the Madrid flat where she had lived for 71 years last Wednesday.
Maricarmen, who is bound to a wheelchair, was carried out of her home on a stretcher after police cleared hundreds of protesters who had gathered to try to prevent the eviction.
She had lived in the Retiro neighbourhood since 1956, when her father first rented the property.
The building was later sold to investment company Urbagesa, which increased her rent from around €500 to €2,650 a month.
When the company found Maricarmen could not afford the new rent, it reduced it to €1,650 – still more than her €1,350 pension could cover.
Her eviction was attempted three times before authorities finally succeeded on the fourth attempt.
Her case has since become a rallying cry for Spain’s housing movement.
Tens of thousands took to the streets of Madrid on Saturday, calling for greater tenant protections and a ban on evictions.
Hundreds have since been sleeping in tents in the capital’s historic Puerta del Sol square as the protest continues.
Demonstrations also swept across Andalucia on Monday, with hundreds of protesters taking to the streets of Malaga, Sevilla and Cadiz.
In Sevilla, Las Setas square was packed with people carrying banners reading: “Homes for those who live in them,” “Landlords and speculative funds out” and “Housing is costing us our lives.”
The protests prompted Spain’s left-wing coalition parties PSOE and Sumar to scramble for an agreement on the new housing measures, which had previously been stalled for several weeks.
The rallies also had a direct impact on Maricarmen’s future, with her lawyer Beatriz Duro announcing on Tuesday that the pensioner would eventually be allowed to return home after striking a new rental deal with the property owners.
According to Duro, Maricarmen’s new rent will be “similar to what she had been paying” before Urbagesa bought her home.
The pensioner will be able to return to her apartment after leaving hospital, where she is being treated for exhaustion, Duro said.
She added that the deal has not yet been signed, and that her client would sign it when she feels better.
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