Public anger boiled over after police removed Maricarmen Abascal on Sept. 23, an 87-year-old with a disability who had lived in her apartment for seven decades. Protests spread to Spain's biggest cities, and hundreds of young people pitched tents in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, the same plaza that became the heart of the 2011 15-M movement, when demonstrators railed against the political system during a jobs crunch and crushing mortgages.
Madrid's proposal targets both instability and price pressure. It would prohibit companies from buying homes purely to speculate, require today's rental contracts to roll forward for the next two years, and tighten limits on evicting people deemed vulnerable. Tourist apartments would face higher taxes, with a 10% VAT set for that category. There is also a sweetener for lower earners: tax relief for people making under €33,000 ($37,460), which Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said would benefit 1.6 million households.
The package goes to Parliament on Friday. Sánchez does not command a majority, so he is courting votes. Speaking in Barcelona, he tied the reforms to Abascal's case and declared, "Patriotism also means preventing an 87-year-old woman, who has faithfully paid her rent for 70 years in the same home, in the same neighborhood, from ending up on the street after spending her entire life in that house." He added, "I ask all parliamentary groups to make that final effort so we can get it through the Congress of Deputies," calling the push "not an ideological issue, but a matter of humanity." Rodríguez, outlining the fiscal pieces at a press briefing, said, "I regret that we had to witness a collective failure for the world, the country and political positions to shift."
Housing has climbed to the top of the worry list for people in Spain, the national pollster finds. For many younger renters, the rent check is the stress point, since buying often requires help from family even as employment sits at its strongest since 2008. Supply is tight too: the Bank of Spain said in June that the country is short by about 750,000 homes.
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Prices keep rising, with Eurostat showing home purchase prices up 12.8% in the past year, versus a 5.1% increase across the European Union. The government's goal is to avoid repeats of evictions like Abascal's and to put a lid on further price gains. If you live in or invest around Spain's hot spots, changes to rental terms, tourist-apartment taxes, and eviction rules can all ripple into what you pay or what you collect.
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