Spain outraged by 87-year-old’s eviction after vulture fund quintuples rent
The eviction of an elderly disabled woman from her lifelong apartment after an investment firm bought the property and raised her rent more than fivefold has sparked nationwide outrage and protests in the Spanish capital.
Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman with a 50 percent disability diagnosis, was finally evicted on Wednesday from her rented apartment in Madrid’s Retiro district, where she had lived for 71 years.
This came after the investment fund that had acquired the property increased her rent more than fivefold.
Maricarmen had a rent-controlled agreement which allowed her to pay €500 a month, but when the property was purchased by what activists and politicians have labelled a “vulture fund”, her new corporate landlord demanded a massive rent increase of €2,650 per month.
Unable to afford such an exorbitant rent hike, Wednesday marked the fourth and final eviction attempt against her.
Police had to contend with a mass protest organised by the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which gathered hundreds of neighbours and housing activists camped out in front of her building from 6 am.
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Officers cordoned off the street and forcibly removed the protesters’ tents to clear a path for court officials, eventually leading to Maricarmen’s eviction.
As she was taken out on a hospital stretcher and put inside an ambulance, hundreds of protesters chanted “Maricarmen, you’re not alone!”.
📺 TV EN DIRECTO | Maricarmen es sacada de su portal en una camilla y subida a una ambulancia mientras los manifestantes corean “Maricarmen, no estás sola” https://t.co/jUFGdIaN8t pic.twitter.com/Q6nojsUXvJ
— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) September 23, 2026
Maricarmen’s plight has turned into a national debate, laying bare Spain’s housing crisis and the role vulture funds play in pricing out ordinary Spaniards from their lifelong barrios (neighbourhoods).
Spanish Minister of Housing Isabel Rodríguez called it a “sad and dramatic day” and blamed Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso for protecting corporate landlords over vulnerable citizens.
For his part, Spain’s Minister of Social Rights Pablo Bustinduy described the eviction as “indecent” and urged the ruling Socialists to push through an anti-eviction and housing decree immediately.
Other left-wing factions pointed out the irony of the PSOE recently abstaining from a bill designed to ban vulture funds like Urbagestión (the investment fund that acquired Maricarmen’s flat) from buying up residential homes.
Madrid authorities have since offered Maricarmen alternative accommodation, but she has refused it, preferring to spend her final days in what has been her home since 1956.
“Neither the Madrid City Council, nor the Madrid Regional Government, nor the national government have provided a response that would definitively end a situation that has been going on for years,” Madrid Tenants’ Union has said in a statement about the fact that evictions based on extortionate rent hikes are nothing new in the capital.
Maricarmen, no estás sola.
Somos 200 personas en la puerta de tu casa para impedir el desahucio. Cientos más se están sumando junto al cordón policial.
Por ti y por todas. Hay que echar a los buitres.
Nos quedamos en nuestras casas. pic.twitter.com/oFkYU70UrW
— Sindicato de Inquilinas e Inquilinos de Madrid (@InquilinatoMad) September 23, 2026
Maricarmen had what in Spain is called a renta antigua (old rent), a rental agreement for housing or commercial premises signed before 1985 and which is therefore governed primarily by the old Urban Leases Law of 1964.
This brings advantages in Spain’s current housing market such as a rental contract extended for life, frozen rents which are way below average rates, and in some cases subrogation to family members when the main tenant dies.
For the investment fund which bought Maricarmen’s apartment, such a low rent in an upmarket district of the capital was not business-savvy, leading them take the matter to court as well as propose numerous rent hikes to Maricarmen.
The dispute escalated and eventually ended up in Spain’s Supreme Court, where judges ruled in favour of the vulture fund.
After four attempts, they managed to evict Maricarmen.
Ultimately, the outcome of this case highlights the extreme fragility of Spain’s old rent system, one which offered far better conditions to tenants.
While landlords look to squeeze out as much money as possible from city-centre properties, evictions such as Maricarmen’s reopen the debate about the ethical limits of Spain’s voracious real estate market and the institutional protection vulnerable tenants should receive.
READ ALSO: Rent caps in Spain convince vulture funds to leave (but there’s a catch)
