Spain announces ban on evictions after protests over 87-year-old woman's removal from flat

ByAlys Davies and Guy Hedgecoe, Reporting fromMadrid. 29 September 2026, 13: 14 BST.

Key points

• It remarked Barcelona and Madrid were Spain's most expensive cities to rent a home, at €23.80 per square metre and €22.70 per square metre respectively.
• Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez pressed political parties to backing the decrees after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal last week.
• The Bank of Spain estimates the country is short of 700, 000 homes, based on the gap between demand and new construction.
• House rates have risen by 12.2% previously year, according to figures for the second quarter of 2026 from national statistics institute INE.
• But Valeria Racu, a spokeswoman for the Madrid Tenants' Union, remarked the battle had "only just begun", and called on more protests throughout Spain next weekend.

Spain's coalition administration has approved new housing measures after protests over the country's housing crisis, sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid last week.

Ministers met on Tuesday to discuss the proposals. It include a ban on evictions until 2030.

Announcing the measures, Health Minister Mónica García remarked they would bring relief to more than five million residents – but opposition politician Míriam Nogueras noted the agreement left "small landlords out in the cold".

Although the administration hopes to hold the vote as shortly as this Friday, the proposals – which have been presented in the form of two decrees – come into effect immediately, but must be approved by Congress within a month.

Pedro Sánchez's leftist coalition administration lacks a majority in parliament and has struggled to secure right-leaning parties to approve previous decrees.

In April, a decree seeking to roll over rental contracts was blocked by right-leaning parties.

García, of the Sumar alliance, remarked other measures agreed upon on Tuesday included the rolling over of contracts until 2028; stricter regulation of short-term and room rentals; and banning the purchase of housing by investment firms.

"It is time to intervene in the speculative housing market and start striking a balance between ordinary citizens and vulture funds, " García remarked.

Referencing the protests, she continued: "Thanks to the mobilisations and the encampments. Without you, this would not have been feasible."

But Nogueras, spokeswoman for the centre-right Catalan nationalists of Junts party, remarked: 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 ceased.

"Lumping together in this category those who have invested their savings in a flat, a restaurant or a property – putting them all in the same basket – is a mistake, " she informed Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

Meanwhile, the minority administration. It is produced up of the Sánchez's ruling Socialists and junior partner the Sumar alliance, has 30 days from the decrees' publication to reach an agreement in parliament.

"Congress has the opportunity to tell Maricarmen that her suffering was worth it. And that many people will benefit from her battle", she remarked.

"We all have our eyes on the text, on the small print, to make sure this is the Maricarmen decree, " continued Alicia del Río, another spokeswoman for the organisation.

Meanwhile, the two decrees approved by the cabinet contain enough to at least suggest that the administration has been listening carefully to the demands of the activists who have been protesting in Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere in recent days.

Notably, the temporary ban on evictions, the rolling over of rental contracts and the ban on investment firms – or "vulture funds" as the administration has termed them – buying property are all the kinds of policies that have been discussed by housing activists in recent days.

Pablo Bustinduy, minister of social rights, described the measures approved by the cabinet as "a first step towards the economic and social transformation of the country".

Bustinduy and his Sumar alliance had entered the negotiations with Sánchez's Socialists determined to take a stand on this matter. It is one they feel strongly concerning.

Sumar's tough stance was a major reason why discussions between the coalition partners on the decrees went down to the wire ahead of Tuesday's cabinet gathering.

While the relatively bold new measures may please plenty of on the left, they have raised the hackles of the Junts, whose backing is again probable to be needed to approve them.

Junts and other parties on the right tend to be reluctant to intervene in the housing market, particularly if it means tipping the balance of the law in favour of tenants and against landlords, plenty of of who are their natural electorate.

Meanwhile, the question now is whether the social momentum generated by the Maricarmen Abascal case will override such reservations and manage to ensure this package of measures becomes law. The hard men removing squatters in Spain. Taking back Barcelona's apartments. 'Sometimes I want to cry': Eviction in a pandemic.

Ahead of the government's announcement on Tuesday, the lawyer for Abascal. This person has become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis, remarked she would be allowed to return to her home after reaching a agreement with the firm that owns it on Monday.

Abascal, who was admitted to hospital after being forcibly removed from the apartment on a stretcher, was unable to attend the session and is yet to sign the agreement.

Abascal's father first rented the flat in 1956 and she had continued to live in it after her parents died, with a cap on the rent, until investment firm Urbagestión purchased the property in 2018.

It raised the monthly rent to more than her monthly pension, leaving her unable to pay it. Abascal's case is not unique.

In the north-eastern city of Zaragoza, another woman's eviction was temporarily suspended on Tuesday, the European Pressphoto Agency documented.

Esmeralda Tejero, 51, has lived in a flat in the city for eight years with her 11-year-old daughter, but halted paying her rent some time ago as she could not afford it on top of her daily living costs, she informed Catalan newspaper el Periódico on Monday.

Protests calling for housing relief measures broke out last week in Madrid and have spread to other cities including Barcelona, Seville, Malaga and Cadiz.

Thousands marched through the capital on Saturday demanding stronger protection for tenants in the face of a housing shortage and soaring rents.

Hundreds of tents have been set up in the famous public square of Puerta del Sol since.

In practice, the Bank of Spain estimates the country is short of 700, 000 homes, based on the gap between demand and new construction.

Meanwhile, the shortage in rental housing means that costs rose by 8.5% in 2025, according to real estate firm Idealista, with Madrid alone seeing an growth of 9.7% in rents.

For now, spain announces ban on evictions after protests over 87-year-old woman' s removal from remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.