The left's big housing joke in Spain (Luis Ventoso in El Debate)

A 54-year-old woman, evicted on 15 April 2026 in Hospitalet de Llobregat, took her own life five months later. Her case illustrates a structural problem: the Banco de España estimates that Spain is short of around one million homes while demand keeps rising.

Olga Matute was 54, had two daughters —one of them a minor— and lived in **Hospitalet de Llobregat**, in the Barcelona metropolitan area. She had bought an apartment in her city twenty years earlier, when she was married. After the divorce, her ex-husband stopped paying the maintenance he owed and she could no longer keep up with the mortgage. She reached an agreement with the bank to stay in what had been her home as a tenant. On an income of **600 euros a month**, she could not pay the rent either. On **15 April** she was evicted. On 5 September 2026 she took her own life. Five months later.

## The case that drew no protest camp

She was an activist in a housing union. Her situation reached the Catalan parliament, where she described her ordeal and admitted she was weighing suicide. She was dismissed with a few brief press items. Columnist **Luis Ventoso**, in **El Debate**, highlights the contrast: there was no protest camp outside the Catalan government's headquarters, no pointing of fingers at the bank that transferred the apartment to a fund. He adds that Prime Minister **Pedro Sánchez** said nothing about the case. He speaks of demagoguery and of a tragedy used as convenient.

The overall figures point to a bigger problem. According to the calculation Ventoso cites in his article, **265,000 evictions** have been recorded in Spain since Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa. The same text puts the number of foreigners who arrived in the last five years at 2.5 million, and four million over the last decade. Each of them needs a roof. Demand is rising; supply is not keeping up.

## A shortfall of one million homes

The **Banco de España** estimates that Spain is short of around **one million homes**. Ventoso attributes this to bureaucratic obstacles, tax burdens and market intervention: rent-capped zones, restrictions on landlords, bans on tourist rentals. He argues the result has been less supply just when it was needed most.

His proposal is to liberalise land, cut red tape, give legal certainty to owners, buyers and tenants, and provide vocational training so the construction sector has a skilled workforce. He also calls for a state-wide social housing plan, and notes that Spain has carried out plans of this kind in other eras.

## The two decrees and the eviction timetable

At the end of September 2026, according to the columnist, two governments each presented their own housing plan. Nothing suggests either decree will win enough parliamentary support. One would include a ban on evicting anyone who declares themselves vulnerable and stops paying until **2030**. Ventoso reads this as an open door to squatting.

Here it is worth separating fact from opinion. The existence of that proposal appears in the El Debate text; reading it as a green light for squatting is the author's opinion. The legal framework of property goes back centuries: the code of **Hammurabi**, from **1750 BC**, already regulated property and is preserved in the **Louvre**. Later legal tradition consolidated that concept. Ventoso argues that this trajectory is called into question when the tenant who stops paying is prioritised over the owner.

## What is needed, according to the author

Ventoso's diagnosis boils down to four ideas: free up land, reduce administrative and tax red tape, boost construction with a trained workforce, and pass a state-wide social housing plan. He complains that the central government has, in practice, become an institute of good advice, while real power lies with the autonomous communities. He also criticises the stigmatisation of builders and real estate firms.

The article was published in **El Debate** on **30 September 2026**. Its central thesis is that interventionist prescriptions make the problem worse. The figures it provides —evictions, arrivals of foreigners, the shortfall estimated by the Banco de España— are all marshalled in support of that thesis. Each would deserve verification against its primary source, but the starting point is undeniable: Spain has a housing problem that is not being solved.

If anyone is going through a similar situation, in Spain there is a free suicide helpline, **024**, available 24 hours a day. Seeking professional help is not a sign of weakness.