Real estate firm agrees to restore reduced rent for evicted 87-year-old after nationwide protests
After mass demonstrations across Spain, a property company has agreed to lower the rent of an 87-year-old tenant to its pre-dispute level, allowing her to return to her Madrid home.
Mass protests in Spain have led a real-estate firm to offer to revert the rent of 87-year-old Maria del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, to its pre-dispute amount. Under the agreement, her monthly payment will be capped at about $570 for the next eight years, roughly 30 % of her pension. The lawyer for Abascal confirmed the offer on Tuesday.
Abascal became a symbol of the country's housing crisis after an international investment fund bought her building and raised the rent by more than 200 %, to around $1,880 a month, in an effort to replace long-term tenants with higher-earning tourist rentals. Tenants’ unions organized large demonstrations and encampments in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, drawing tens of thousands of participants and spreading to other cities.
"historic win"
The union celebrated the landlord’s proposal as a historic win in a post on the social platform X. The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded by drafting a package of measures to be voted on in parliament, including an extension of expired tenant protections through 2030, aimed at preventing evictions of vulnerable residents. Critics note the proposal falls short of protesters’ broader demands and may face opposition from conservative parties.
Spain’s central bank estimates a shortfall of about 755,000 homes, a gap that could expand to one million units by 2028, underscoring the pressure on the rental market.