Spain’s rent squeeze spills into the streets after housing measures fail

An 87-year-old woman’s eviction from the Madrid home where she had lived for 70 years has become a flashpoint for Spain’s housing crisis. After an international investment fund bought her building, Maria del Carmen Abascal’s rent rose by more than 200% to roughly $1,880 a month, according to Al Jazeera. Her representatives say she has since returned home. But the protests sparked by her eviction have spread, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets as parliament rejected the government’s proposed response.

On Friday, lawmakers voted down two housing decrees put forward by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority coalition of the Socialist Party and Sumar. The defeat exposed the government’s difficulty in securing support for measures aimed at easing pressure on renters. It also prompted fresh demands for an election, although Sanchez has not announced an early vote.

Rent protections meet a parliamentary wall

The first decree would have halted evictions of vulnerable people, made property speculation harder and tightened restrictions on short-term leases. It also offered tax incentives to encourage rental housing and construction. The second would have made leases renew automatically when they expired, effectively allowing them to continue indefinitely. Owners seeking to end a contract would have had to compensate tenants with 12 months’ rent.

The centre-right Popular Party, far-right Vox and right-wing Catalan separatist party Junts opposed the measures. Junts spokesperson Miriam Nogueras argued that the rules would push owners to withdraw homes from the rental market, reducing supply and raising prices. Sanchez had urged lawmakers to consider young adults unable to leave their parents’ homes and families facing repeated rent increases. Health Minister Monica Garcia accused the opposition of favouring property income over working households.

The affordability pressure is substantial. Average rent per square metre rose from €8.20 in 2016 to €15.10 this year, according to property website Idealista, as cited by Al Jazeera. Tourism has also become part of the dispute: Spain attracted 97 million visitors last year and has seen protests linking mass tourism to housing shortages and living costs. Al Jazeera reported that the increase in Abascal’s rent was intended to displace her so the property could become more lucrative tourist accommodation.

A deeper housing problem, an uncertain election timetable

Marta Soler Gallart, head of sociology at the University of Barcelona, told Al Jazeera that neither decree addressed the medium- or long-term housing problem. She contrasted Spain with Vienna, where a long history of building and maintaining public social housing has helped keep rents low. In Spain, she said, publicly supported housing can eventually be sold by recipients at market prices. Journalist Jorge Dioni Lopez also highlighted the political difficulty of changing a system in which homeownership carries deep financial importance.

“Housing is our savings system and also the primary means of transmitting wealth between generations,” Dioni Lopez wrote in Vanity Fair.

Saturday’s demonstrations were largely peaceful, but police used rubber bullets and tear gas in Valencia. In Madrid, police arrested three members of a far-right group after activists tried to approach protesters camped in Puerta del Sol, according to the Spanish government. Tenants’ Union spokesperson Valeria Racu said the rallies showed renewed momentum behind demands for change.

The next test is whether street pressure changes the political timetable. Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has urged Sanchez to call elections. Spanish news site El Diario reported that a vote could come as early as November 29. That remains unconfirmed: the general election is currently scheduled for July 2027, and no early election has been officially announced.