Spanish pensioner, 87, is allowed to return home after she was evicted by riot cops after investment brothers pushed her rent up by 275%, sparking nationwide fury

DAILYMAIL • 1h ago

By OLIVIA ALLHUSEN, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER 09:30 29 Sep 2026, updated 09:42 29 Sep 2026

An 87-year-old Spanish pensioner is set to return to the home she was forcibly evicted from after her case sparked protests across Spain.

Maricarmen Abascal was carried out of the Madrid flat where she had lived for 70 years on a stretcher on 23 September, following a dispute over a proposed 275 per cent rent rise.

Footage filmed inside showed riot police forcing their way through a barricade of chairs, shelves and a lamp as supporters tried to stop the court-ordered eviction.

Tens of thousands marched through the Spanish capital on Saturday to protest her eviction and demand stronger protection for tenants amid a housing shortage and soaring rents.

Ms Abascal’s lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said both sides had shown ‘goodwill’ and agreed a new contract under which she would pay a similar amount of rent.

The agreement has yet to be signed. Ms Abascal, who is being treated for exhaustion, will sign it when she feels better, Duro said.

Duro called the agreement the ‘result of the social mobilisation’. Supporters hailed it as a victory but vowed to keep campaigning against evictions and for more affordable housing.

Ms Abascal’s father first rented the flat, in the upmarket area of Retiro in central Madrid, in 1956. She remained its tenant after her parents died, with her rent capped under an old tenancy agreement.

Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL, run by investment brothers Ricardo Alonso Fernández and Fernando Alonso Fuentes, bought the apartment in 2018.

Ms Abascal had been paying around €440 (£379) a month. The firm later proposed €1,650 (£1,420), a rise of 275 per cent, according to Spanish reports. Ms Abascal’s monthly pension is €1,350.

Three previous attempts to evict her were blocked by the courts.

The Bank of Spain estimates that the country is short of 700,000 homes.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has promised housing relief measures when his cabinet meets on Tuesday, while his Socialist Party, which lacks a parliamentary majority, hopes to pass legislation addressing public anger.

Ms Abascal’s lawyer claims the building’s owners had not spoken directly to her once in the eight years since the purchase.

Both brothers are lawyers and have been administrators of Urbagestión since it was founded in 2005.

The firm paid around €240,000 (£207,000) for Ms Abascal’s apartment, according to reports.

The men are also linked to more than a dozen other companies, including businesses in property, construction and pharmacy sector advisory services.

British pianist James Rhodes revealed after the eviction that he had contacted Urbagestión and offered to pay Ms Abascal’s rent or buy the apartment so she could remain there. He said the firm rejected both proposals.

Supporters of Ms Abascal camped outside the building on September 22, joined by celebrities including Javier Bardem’s brother, Carlos, and the singer Ana Belén, who read out the poem Desahucio (Eviction) by Rafael Alberti.

Police carried out the court-ordered eviction, while health workers took Ms Abascal from the building as protesters chanted, ‘Maricarmen, you are not alone’.

The legal battle reached the Supreme Court which ruled in favour of the firm, clearing the way for the eviction, the Madrid renters’ union said.

Police officers charged and dragged away dozens of activists who had camped outside Ms Abascal’s building to try to stop the eviction, to cries of ‘shame!’ from protesters.

After leaving the building, she was taken to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. She refused the free emergency placement offered by the city and is thought to be staying with a relative.

Amnesty International Spain slammed ‘a violation of human rights’ and ‘a system that puts the speculative interests of a vulture fund before Ms Abascal’s right to stay in her house’.

‘It isn’t an isolated case, it is just another portrayal of the suffering that thousands of households go through in Spain,’ Amnesty said in a statement.

In an interview with public broadcaster RTVE recorded on September 22, Ms Abascal called the company ‘inhuman, and all in order to make money’.

‘You cannot make a person live for seven years with a machete hanging over their neck,’ she said, blaming the national, regional and city authorities for her plight.

Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez insisted the minority Leftist government had repeatedly tried to pass a law to ban such evictions and accused the conservative-run Madrid region of ‘rolling out the red carpet for these speculators’.

Housing has for years been a top concern for Spaniards as supply falls short of demand, with rents and purchasing prices soaring relentlessly as elsewhere in the European Union.

Residents in the world’s second-most visited country blame short-term tourist rentals such as Airbnb for driving up prices and cutting supply, sparking protests in hotspots including Barcelona.

‘I’m leaving Madrid, because Madrid isn’t Madrid. And the people of Madrid are no longer Madrilenos. They are all the tourists that you have in Gran Via,’ Ms Abascal told RTVE, referring to the Spanish capital’s main commercial thoroughfare.

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