Housing rights groups are demanding reforms to protect vulnerable tenants.

In the first victory of protests against real estate speculation in Spain, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal will return to the home where she lived for seven decades.

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The agreement, which must still be ratified by the woman, who has reduced mobility, establishes her return to the home in Madrid’s Retiro neighborhood once she is discharged from the hospital.

The resolution was reached after more than four hours of mediation between the legal representatives of the affected woman, the Madrid Tenants’ Union, the company that owns the property and the Madrid City Council. It establishes that the woman, who has a 50% disability, will live in the property under a lease agreement covered by the municipal program, with rent not exceeding 30% of her net income.

Abascal’s case, in which she paid about 500 euros a month under an old lease agreement, became the face of the difficulties of accessing housing in Spain. After Urbagestion acquired the property in 2018, the company sought to terminate the lease and proposed rent far higher than the woman’s pension.

An 87-year-old pensioner whose eviction sparked protests in Madrid is now being allowed to return home. Last week, police evicted Maricarmen Abascal on a stretcher from her home of more than 70 years. pic.twitter.com/Kdz2eDwbSI

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 29, 2026

The resolution of the case comes amid growing social pressure stemming from the encampment at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, where more than 300 tents remain set up to demand structural reforms from the Spanish government.

Tenant organizations and mobilized youth movements reiterated their demands for the legal framework to prohibit the eviction of vulnerable families by law, restore indefinite-term leases and establish the expropriation of properties held by investment funds. They warned that a general strike would be called if these guarantees are not included in upcoming government decrees.

The agreement provides for a lease protected under the Urban Leasing Law for a period of eight years, with the support of the Municipal Housing and Land Company to provide legal advice and nonpayment insurance to the property owner.

Abascal’s supporters stressed that the octogenarian’s return to her home was possible only because of massive popular solidarity and resistance in the streets, which brought attention to the violation of rights caused by the real estate market.

The achievement is strengthening the determination of social organizations advocating for the right to housing throughout Spain, which are awaiting approval of urgent measures by the Council of Ministers.

The eviction of Maricarmen in Spain and the global housing crisis https://t.co/7hoRj1Wnxx

— Socialist Equality Party (Sheffield) (@SEP_Sheffield) September 29, 2026

Citizens remain vigilant over the government’s decisions, saying that the restoration of Maricarmen’s home should serve as the starting point for definitively eliminating forced evictions and curbing abuses by rental companies in the country.

The Spanish government, formed by a coalition between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the left-wing Sumar alliance, reached a decisive agreement to advance two decree-laws aimed at addressing the housing emergency affecting the country.

The measures were included on the agenda of Tuesday’s Council of Ministers meeting as a result of extensive discussions aimed at consolidating the parliamentary agenda. The decision to separate the rules into two legislative texts seeks to speed up the most urgent actions on social protection, separating them from issues that require more complex political agreements.

The negotiations became tense because of Sumar’s firm demand, which conditioned its participation in the ministerial meeting on the inclusion of concrete guarantees for the working class, such as an effective halt to evictions, regulation of room rentals and the mandatory extension of lease agreements.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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