Government brands small firm 'vulture fund' after it received digital grant

SME labelled 'vulture fund' received €6,000 from Digital Kit

A company with fewer than ten employees. A public grant of €6,000 for digitalization. And a label – 'vulture fund' – which, according to the debate, was applied by the government itself. Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL, the company implicated in Maricarmen's eviction, is a Madrid-based SME that in 2023 received a subsidy from the Kit Digital program, granted by Red.es, an entity dependent on the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, headed by Óscar López.

What the National Database of Subsidies Says

The grant is recorded in the National Database of Subsidies and corresponds to Segment II of the program, reserved for companies with between three and fewer than ten employees. It was financed with European funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. To receive it, the company had to prove its SME status to the Administration, an administrative requirement that directly contradicts the image of a large landlord attributed to it. This is the paradox of the case: the same Administration that validated its small business status is the one that, according to reports, labels it a 'vulture fund'.

From Renta Corporación to Urbagesa: the property that changed hands

The timeline begins in 2018, when the owners decided to sell the entire property to Renta Corporación, one of the country's major real estate holdings. The first offer to Maricarmen was €247,000, an amount she had not saved and for which she would not have obtained a mortgage due to her age. The holding later divested the property, which ended up in the hands of Urbagesa. Maricarmen has lived there for 70 years, under an old rent contract updated by CPI with expenses such as property tax (IBI) at her charge.

The version of the ten calls and the blame game

A detail has emerged that has inflamed the issue: the department allegedly called the company's lawyer up to ten times to try to buy the home or cover the rent difference. A minister negotiating a three-bedroom apartment? Some argue that the government does not carry out evictions and that the order comes from the court; counterarguments point to criticism that the government abstained when it had the law in its hands. The reproach, according to one participant, extends to the PSOE, the PP, VOX, the PNV, and CiU.

The company labelled a 'vulture fund' turns out to have fewer than ten employees and received a digitalization subsidy. With those figures on the table, the label holds up less well than an old rent contract.