Violent demonstrations broke out in Madrid this Wednesday after the forced removal of Maricarmen Abascal,an 87-year-old resident. the disabled pensioner was evicted from her long-term home after a real estate firm implemented a 275% rent increase.
A 275% rent hike ends a 71-year residency
Maricarmen Abascal faced a sudden end to her seven-decade tenure in her Madrid apartment after monthly costs surged to 2,650 euros. According to the Madrid renters union, the legal struggle against the firm that acquired her building eventually reached the Supreme Court,which ultimately ruled in favor of the real estate company.
Supporters of Abascal claim the elderly woman had maintained a consistent payment history, yet she was allegedly given only 30 minutes to gather her personal belongings. In an interview with the public broadcaster RTVE, Abascal described the company’s actions as "inhuman," stating that the entire process felt designed solely to generate profit. she also expressed a deep sense of loss for her city, telling RTVE that she was leaving Madrid because the capital no longer feels like home to its original residents.
Riot police and stretcher evacuations in Madrid
The eviction process triggered intense physical confrontations between demonstrators and riot police at the building entrance. as activists attempted to block the doorway, officers charged and dragged away dozens of protesters who had been camping outside to prevent the removal.
The scene turned increasingly chaotic as health workers were forced to use a stretcher to move the wheelchair-using Abascal into an ambulance. Following her removal from the building, she was transported to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. While she reportedly declined a free emergency placement offered by the city, she is expected to stay with a relative in the interim.
Spain's 700,000-home shortage and the ghost developments
The housing deficit in Spain is a systemic issue that extends far beyond a single apartment in Madrid. The Bank of Spain estimates that the country is currently facing a shortage of nearly 700,000 homes, a gap that continues to drive up demand and prices.
This shortage is particularly striking given the existence of thousands of stalled construction projects. Data from the Ministry of Housing shows that over 100,000 homes remain in a half-finished state,while another 390,000 plots of land are fully equipped with roads and streetlights but lack any actual buildings. Notably, the Ministry's report only tracks developments intended for at least 1,000 homes with construction levels below 70 percent, suggesting the true scale of the problem may be even larger. Many of these sites remain in a state of limbo due to the lingering economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent developer bankruptcies.
Who is the unnamed real estate firm?
Political divisions regarding housing policy are deepening between the national government and regional authorities. Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez has accused the conservative-led Madrid region of facilitating speculation, while insisting her government is fighting to pass laws that would ban such evictions.
Despite the intensity of the protests, several key details remain unverified. The specific identity of the real estate firm that initiated the rent hike has not been released, nor has the name of the "vulture fund" cited by Amnesty International Spain. Additionally, it remains unclear how many activists were officially detained during the clashes at the building entrance.
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