Eighty-seven-year-old woman evicted from Madrid home after rent increase
World · 27 September 2026
Written by AI from multiple news reports
An 87-year-old woman called Maricarmen was removed from her Madrid flat on Wednesday after living there for more than seventy years.
An investment company bought the building in 2018 and raised her rent from €500 to €2,650 a month. Maricarmen's pension was only €1,350, so she could not afford the new rent. Courts had stopped three earlier eviction attempts. An anonymous donor even offered to cover most of the cost, but the company refused and went ahead. Maricarmen was given thirty minutes to leave and was carried out on a stretcher.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people marched in Madrid. They want stronger protections for tenants and a ban on evictions when no alternative housing is available. Spain currently has a shortage of around 550,000 homes.