Spain’s deepening housing crisis has returned to the center of national debate, exposing a rental market defined by skyrocketing prices, extreme living arrangements, and political gridlock. Across the country, the struggle of Spain's nine million tenants has reached a tipping point, highlighted by widespread protests and increasingly desperate measures to secure shelter.
Public outrage recently coalesced around the slogan "Todos somos Maricarmen" ("We’re all Maricarmen"), sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old disabled woman from her lifelong apartment in Madrid. Her eviction occurred after an investment fund increased her rent fivefold, a case that has come to symbolize the impact of corporate real estate acquisition on ordinary citizens. There are thousands of other Spaniards apart from Maricarmen being evicted from their rental properties when investment firms hike rents, as well as some truly deplorable conditions and eye-watering prices for tenants in general.
Beyond evictions, the crisis has forced tenants into highly precarious and unusual living conditions. In the Balearic Islands, a property lawyer recently revealed in an interview with radio station Cadena Ser that landlords are renting out corridors and hallways for €500 to €600 a month. Due to a severe shortage of affordable housing on the archipelago, many tenants choose to tolerate "hallway living" rather than pursue legal action against landlords, fearing they will end up homeless if they complain.
In other major cities, alternative housing models have emerged to exploit desperate renters. In Barcelona, "pisos colmena" (hive flats) pack more than a dozen people into tight quarters. Some of these properties have been modified to mimic Japanese capsule hotels, where micro-spaces of just two square meters are rented out as "coffins" for €200 to €300 per month. Meanwhile, in Ibiza, some tenants pay €500 a month simply to share a bed. This has contributed to the rise of "hot bedding" in Spain's largest cities, an arrangement where shift workers take turns sleeping in the same bed based on their working hours.
These extreme examples reflect a broader nationwide trend where rents have nearly doubled over the past decade. In major urban centers such as Madrid, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca, finding a habitable rental property for under €1,000 a month has become virtually impossible. That’s not to say that ordinary Spaniards who’ve inherited a couple of family properties are not riding the wave of sky-high rents and living off the spoils.
Despite the severity of the crisis, legislative attempts to curb price gouging and protect tenants have yielded minimal results. A housing law introduced in 2023, which established rental caps, ultimately reduced the supply of long-term rental properties. Landlords responded by pulling their properties from the traditional market and listing them on short-term vacation platforms like Airbnb. To bypass full-time tenant rights, many landlords now rely on temporary or seasonal contracts that cap tenancies at 11 months. Over the last two years, right-wing political parties have twice blocked legislation intended to regulate this temporary rental sector.
The political impasse extends to the ruling coalition as well. Just a week before Maricarmen's eviction in Madrid, the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) abstained from a congressional vote that would have banned vulture funds from purchasing additional residential properties in Spain. The ban had been proposed by Sumar, the PSOE's hard-left junior coalition partner, but was defeated after the People's Party (PP), Vox, and Catalan nationalist party Junts voted against it.
Other legislative efforts have similarly stalled. In July, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez delayed a vote on a new tenant-protection bill until September, fearing they lacked the parliamentary majority to pass it. As September draws to a close, the bill has yet to be brought forward. Furthermore, bureaucratic obstacles and extensive red tape continue to delay the construction of new social housing, taking longer to clear than the actual building process. This shortage is compounded by the decisions of successive left- and right-wing administrations over several decades to sell off public housing stock to private buyers, leaving Spain without the necessary safety nets to protect its most vulnerable residents.
Seeing an abuela kicked out of her home due to corporate greed has hit a nerve with the Spanish public.
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