Spain's Parliament Rejects Housing Decrees as Renter Protests Swell

Spain's Congress of Deputies has voted down two housing decree-laws that would have banned evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030 and curbed the power of investment funds buying up residential property. The defeat, on Friday 2 October, followed a week of protests and tent camps that began in Madrid's Puerta del Sol after an 87-year-old woman was removed from the flat her family had rented since 1956. The Tenants' Union says the fight is only beginning.

Spain's Parliament Rejects Housing Decrees as Renter Protests Swell

Madrid, Spain — Spain's Congress of Deputies rejected two government decree-laws on housing on Friday 2 October 2026, dealing a costly defeat to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's minority coalition and inflaming a protest movement that has spread from Madrid to cities across the country. Lawmakers rejected the first decree by 178 votes to 172, and the second by 184 to 166, according to the BBC. The debate ran about five hours, and Sanchez spoke at the close before a roll-call vote, AP and DW reported.

What Congress Voted Down

The two decree-laws had been approved by cabinet days earlier and took effect immediately, but they required congressional ratification within one month, the BBC reported. The government is a minority coalition of the Socialists (PSOE) and the junior partner Sumar, and it lost when the Catalan separatist party Together for Catalonia (Junts) joined the centre-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox in voting against. AP reported that Junts, a sometime ally of the government, doomed the measures when combined with the "No" of the PP and Vox. The Congress has 350 seats and the vote was decided by roll call. The government said the measures would bring relief to more than five million people, and Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy called them "a first step towards the economic and social transformation of the country". Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said: "Congress has the opportunity to tell Maricarmen that her suffering was worth it... and that many people will benefit from her battle."

The Eviction That Lit the Fuse

Maria del Carmen "Maricarmen" Abascal Martin, 87, was evicted from her Madrid flat on 23 September 2026, according to AP and the BBC. Her father first rented the flat in 1956, and she had lived there for around seven decades after her parents died. The property was bought in 2018 by the investment company Urbagestion, which raised the monthly rent above her pension, leaving her unable to pay, the BBC reported. Housing campaigners said the new owner had sought a rent increase of 275 percent, according to AFP and The Local. She was removed on a stretcher and was hospitalised after the eviction. After a deal was reached with the company that owns the flat, her lawyer said she would be allowed to return home. Protests calling for housing relief started in Madrid and spread to other cities including Barcelona, Seville, Malaga and Cadiz, the BBC reported.

The case is far from isolated. In the north-eastern city of Zaragoza, another eviction was temporarily suspended this week after Esmeralda Tejero, 51, who has lived in a flat there for eight years with her 11-year-old daughter, fell behind on rent she could not afford alongside her daily living costs. The European Pressphoto Agency reported the suspension, and Tejero spoke to the Catalan newspaper El Periodico.

A Week of Tents in Puerta del Sol

A demonstration on 26 September ended with protesters camping in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, and the camp has held one of the capital's best-known squares for about a week. Hundreds of tents have been set up there, the BBC reported, and camping spread to other squares in cities including Barcelona and Malaga. The Tenants' Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas) coordinated the protests, Reuters and AFP reported. The encampment "will continue and will continue expanding", the union said, according to DW. The Madrid Tenants' Union's Valeria Racu said the battle had "only just begun".

The Numbers Behind the Anger

The Bank of Spain has estimated the country is short of about 700,000 homes, the BBC reported. House prices rose 12.2 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2026, according to the national statistics institute INE. Rents rose 8.5 percent in 2025, and rents in Madrid alone rose 9.7 percent, according to the real-estate firm Idealista. Average rents have almost doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent, Idealista says. The figures describe a market in which wages have not kept pace and in which the purchase of residential property by investment firms has become a central political grievance.

What the Decrees Would Have Done

The first decree contained a ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, a two-year extension of rental contracts due to expire at the end of 2028, stricter regulation of short-term and room rentals, tax increases for tourist apartments, and restrictions on what the government calls "vulture funds" — investment firms buying residential property, with a ban on such purchases running to 2028, according to the BBC and AFP. The second decree provided for the automatic renewal of rental agreements when they expire, with a 12-month penalty for landlords who terminate a contract without just cause, AFP and The Local reported. Together the measures represented the most direct intervention in the housing market by the Sanchez government. Ministers argued they were necessary to protect tenants from displacement. They also made no secret of what had forced their hand. "It is time to intervene in the speculative housing market and start striking a balance between ordinary citizens and vulture funds," Health Minister Monica Garcia said, adding: "Thanks to the mobilisations and the encampments. Without you, this would not have been possible."

Why Junts Said No

Junts argued the measures lacked rigour and would reduce housing supply and worsen the situation, according to AFP, The Local and DW. Junts spokeswoman Miriam Nogueras said evictions by a "vulture fund... run by someone managing millions of euros" obviously needed to be stopped, but that "lumping together... those who have invested their savings in a flat, a restaurant or a property — putting them all in the same basket — is a mistake," the BBC reported. The government said it was time for Junts to "show their true colors", grouping the party with the conservative opposition and Vox, according to the New York Times. It was the second time in months that housing legislation had fallen: in April 2026, a previous decree seeking to roll over rental contracts was blocked by right-leaning parties, the BBC reported.

Sanchez's Narrow Path

Pedro Sanchez has led the government for eight years, and the next scheduled general election is in 2027, according to AFP and The Local. The defeat sparked speculation in Spanish media that Sanchez could bring elections forward; his office did not immediately respond to AP's questions about a possible snap election. Sources told Spanish media the government would spend the weekend deciding its next step, including whether to dissolve parliament, the BBC reported. Sanchez told lawmakers: "What is behind these decrees is the desire to instill order and a sense of humanity in a market that if we do not rein it in will destroy our society," according to AP. He added: "Do the right thing, or history will judge you, and sooner than you think." He also said: "Voting against these decrees today means defending the interests of this oligarchy and turning your back on your own people," the BBC reported.

The Opposition's Answer

Opponents of the measures argued that they risked compounding the problem by reducing housing supply. PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo urged Sanchez to "call elections as soon as possible", saying that after eight years in power the prime minister had the backing of "neither the streets nor parliament", AFP and The Local reported. The PP's Juan Bravo put it more bluntly: "housing doesn't get cheaper with decrees, it gets cheaper with more homes", according to the BBC. Recent opinion polls have generally placed the PP ahead of the Socialists, AFP and The Local reported. The decrees are not permanently dead — they can be re-tabled — and the government has announced no decision.

What Comes Next

The Tenants' Union said it would press ahead with mass rallies on Saturday and called for demonstrations in more than 50 cities, Reuters and AFP reported. In Madrid, demonstrators were due to set off from several locations around the city at noon and converge on the Plaza de Cibeles. "There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for," the union said. Tenants' Union spokesperson Alicia del Rio said after the vote: "We're aiming for a general strike", Reuters reported. No general strike has been called, Spain's parliament has not been dissolved, and no early election date has been set.

The Fight Is Not Over

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside parliament in Madrid during the debate, DW and AFP reported, chanting "shame" and "your profits, our misery" as the results came through. People in the public tribune of the chamber shouted "Vulture funds govern the congress!", AP reported. The scenes outside parliament and the tents in Puerta del Sol have turned housing into the central political fault line in Spain — a country where, the Bank of Spain says, supply is hundreds of thousands of homes short of demand and rents have climbed far faster than wages. The government says it will decide its next step. The Tenants' Union says the encampment will continue and expand. The decrees can be re-tabled. The next scheduled general election is in 2027. For now, the tents remain.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Deutsche Welle, The Local Spain, The New York Times.