Evicted After 71 Years in Madrid: The Case of Maricarmen Abascal, 87
Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was evicted on 23 September 2026 from the flat in Madrid's Retiro district where she had lived for 71 years. The judicial commission, the court team that enforces eviction orders, acted on the fourth attempt. She was taken out on a stretcher to an ambulance.
Her father first rented the flat in 1956. Abascal stayed on as tenant after her parents died, when older rules kept the rent capped at a low level. That changed after investment firm Urbagestión bought the building in 2018. The firm raised her monthly rent from €500 to €2,650, then lowered the demand to €1,650 BBC. Her monthly pension is €1,350.
She had fought for eight years to stay in the home El Pais. Courts blocked three earlier eviction attempts. In June, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors housing and other social rights, called for the eviction to be stopped and for Abascal to be offered affordable housing elsewhere. An anonymous donor offered to pay most of the rent, but Urbagestión reportedly rejected the offer and the eviction went ahead.
Abascal has a recognized disability of 50% and reduced mobility after hip operations. She waited in a wheelchair before the fourth attempt. About a hundred activists waited with her for the judicial commission, while hundreds gathered outside to try to prevent the eviction Cadena SER. The morning involved tension, police charges and a blockade by protesters.
Rents in Madrid rose 10% in the last year and more than 100% in the last decade, according to property site Idealista. A shortage of available housing has been blamed for soaring rental costs in Spain in recent years.
The broader context here is a collision seen in several European capitals. Old tenancies with controlled rents still exist inside a market now shaped by purchases by investment firms, sharp rent increases when contracts change, and very limited supply. Abascal's move from a €500 protected rent to a €1,650 demand, set against a €1,350 pension, packs that shift into one household budget.
In my view, the procedures deserve as much attention as the rent figures. A UN treaty body issued a protective request in June. Domestic courts had stopped three earlier attempts. The fourth went ahead. For people who follow international institutions, that sequence shows the limits of temporary protection requests from Geneva when enforcement depends on national courts and local services. It also explains why housing activists gathered around one case. They treated it as a test of whether outside review, media attention and a private offer to pay could change the legal result. They did not.
Looking ahead for Spain, the next questions are administrative. What alternative housing, if any, is now offered. How courts handle other long-term tenancies in buildings bought after 2018. And whether steps to increase rental supply ease the pressure shown in the Idealista data. This eviction alone does not settle those questions. Abascal's removal after more than seven decades gives them a concrete reference point.
