Spain announces plan to ease housing crisis amid outcry over eviction of 87-year-old

Spain's governing coalition, led by the Socialist Workers' party, has unveiled a package of housing reforms designed to calm growing anger over the country's rental crisis, following widespread condemnation after an 87-year-old disabled woman was removed from her Madrid home last week, according to Guardian World.

The cabinet has signed off on two separate decrees, though both still require approval from Congress, where the ruling coalition does not hold enough seats to pass legislation alone. Officials have asked for a special sitting of parliament on Friday, hoping to push the measures through without delay, Guardian World reported.

Details of the legislation are still emerging, but the central decree is expected to stretch existing protections against evicting at-risk renters through 2030, introduce new rules governing short-term rentals and room-by-room leasing arrangements, and block large investment funds from purchasing residential property until 2028. It would also add two years onto rental contracts currently set to lapse at the close of 2028. A separate deal covers the automatic extension of lease agreements.

The push for reform follows days of demonstrations in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, where protesters have camped out since the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, who was carried from her apartment on a stretcher last Wednesday. Demonstrators are calling for broader changes, including a freeze on rents and guaranteed lease renewals without steep price increases.

According to Guardian World, the first decree appears to have won support from conservative Catalan and Basque parties that had previously resisted the government's efforts to overhaul housing policy, though those same parties are expected to reject the second measure.

Health minister Mónica García welcomed the agreement, calling it a breakthrough that would have seemed impossible only weeks earlier, and said the moment had come to rein in speculative practices in the housing market and restore fairness between ordinary residents and large investment funds, Guardian World reported.

However, the Tenants' Union, which has organized much of the protest movement, said it wanted to examine the full text before backing the plan and criticized the decision to split the reforms into two separate decrees. Union spokesperson Alicia Del Río said breaking up the package risked leaving only fragments of what was needed, and insisted the government adopt the tenants' proposal, known as the Maricarmen decree, without cutting it down.

The government has a month from the decree's official publication to secure enough backing in Congress. Junts, the Catalan pro-independence party whose votes would be needed, said it remained far from an agreement and wants safeguards for small landlords, who represent the majority of property owners in Spain. Junts spokesperson Míriam Nogueras argued that owning a couple of flats should not be treated the same as owning whole apartment blocks.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People's Party, dismissed the government's proposals, arguing that the administration itself had created a housing problem that did not exist when it took power, and that an issue built up over eight years could not be fixed instantly, Guardian World reported.

Meanwhile, Urbagestión, the firm behind Abascal's eviction, has offered to let her return to her apartment at a rent capped at 30% of her income. She accepted the offer on Tuesday, agreeing to pay 533 euros a month, far below the 1,650 euros originally demanded, which had triggered her removal.

Highlighting the broader housing squeeze, former Barcelona mayor and housing activist Ada Colau said she recently had to leave her long-term rental after 15 years because she could no longer afford it on a single income following her separation. Colau said rental prices are increasingly built around the assumption of two incomes, whether from couples or housemates, and that she has since moved in with a relative.