Police have dismantled a protest tent camp in Madrid, authorities and activists said on Tuesday, more than a month after it was set up in the centre of the Spanish capital to protest the country’s housing crisis.
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“The eviction of the Puerta del Sol camp took place without incident or episodes of violence,” sources from Madrid’s city government said, reporting 334 people were removed and two arrested.
In a post on Telegram, protest organisers called it “a violent police operation” that left several people injured.
The camp sprang up on 26 September following the police eviction of an 87-year-old pensioner from her lifelong Madrid home, after the real estate company that owned the apartment drastically raised the rent.
Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275% to €2,650, according to the Tenants Union.
She was hospitalised after her eviction and later died on 7 October.
Her eviction sparked nationwide protests against runaway housing costs and a lack of tenant protections, with tens of thousands of demonstrators hitting the streets.
Protesters set up a tent camp in Madrid’s emblematic Puerta del Sol square, with the encampment turning into a sprawling warren of tents and tarpaulin hosting hundreds of people in a mini-city equipped with a canteen, a clinic and a space for meetings.
Police moved to clear the camp overnight Monday-Tuesday, city authorities said.
“The operation involved 220 national police officers and 180 officers from Madrid’s municipal police, with the participation of firefighters and social services,” city sources said, welcoming “an operation that made it possible to carry out the evacuation without violent disruption to public order”.
Early on Tuesday, much of the square was closed off by police, with cleaning operations underway, according to AFP journalists on the scene.
How much have housing prices risen in Spain?
Purchase prices are currently growing at double-digit rates. The Housing Price Index of the National Statistics Institute (INE) recorded a 12.2% year-on-year increase in the second quarter of 2026.
Second-hand homes, which make up most of the Spanish market, became even more expensive, by 12.9%, while new housing rose by 7.4%. Compared with the previous quarter, prices climbed another 3.4%.
The problem does not just affect those looking to buy. The average advertised rent reached 15.1 euros per square metre in August 2026, according to Idealista, 5.8% more than a year earlier. And these rises add to the increases recorded in recent years.
The result is that the cost of housing is absorbing a large share of the income of many households, especially among those who rent.
According to INE data, in 2024, 28.1% of people renting a home at market rates were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on housing costs.
The European Union average was 19.2%.
The affordability problem is not simply that homes are more expensive. For a significant share of tenants, keeping a home consumes a very high proportion of their income.
Additional sources • AFP
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