Action against 87-year-old pensioner ignites long-simmering anger over housing costs
PUBLISHED : 29 Sep 2026 at 18:45
MADRID – Spain’s government, under pressure from nationwide housing protests, on Tuesday approved measures including a proposed ban on evictions until 2030 and the automatic renewal of tenant contracts, a minister said.
An eviction last week of an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner, Maricarmen Abascal, has catalysed long-running anger at housing costs and piled pressure on the leftist coalition to reform a market widely denounced as unaffordable.
Demonstrators have set up a protest camp of more than 100 tents in Madrid’s emblematic Puerta del Sol square, while tens of thousands of people have protested across the country.
Health Minister Monica Garcia said on social media that the government’s proposed package would benefit more than five million people — but it must be approved in parliament where the leftist coalition lacks a majority.
Garcia also listed measures including the regulation of short-term rentals and a “ban on the purchase of housing by vulture funds”, without providing further details.
“We have achieved today what was unimaginable a month ago,” Garcia wrote on social media, attributing the political agreement to the protesters’s pressure. “Without you, this would not have been possible.”
Justice Minister Felix Bolanos wrote on X: “Today is a great day for tenants and small homeowners. And a bad one for speculators.”
The Socialist-led government had spent days negotiating with its far-left junior coalition partner Sumar and other parties with a view to adopting a law that can pass Spain’s fragmented parliament.
Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez was to give a press conference later Tuesday with details on the measures agreed by cabinet.
