Urbagestión has broken its silence on the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen, denying all accusations. Yet every point in their statement is directly challenged by tenants, lawyers, and official records, exposing a deep rift over Spain’s housing crisis.
Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversiones S.L. waited two years before speaking out about the eviction that put 87-year-old Maricarmen at the center of Spain’s housing debate. Now, the company’s public defense has set off a storm. Every claim is being shot down by tenants, lawyers, and official records.
The company’s main argument? Urbagestión says it never asked Maricarmen to pay more rent than before. They point to talks about a “bonified” rent, supposedly 40 to 50% below market. But Beatriz Duro, the tenants’ lawyer, says Urbagestión itself set the new rent at 1,650 euros per month. Maricarmen could not pay that. The company’s technical defense is that it did not “demand” the amount, only made it a condition for a new contract. The outcome was clear. Maricarmen had to leave.
According to BBC and Reuters, Maricarmen had lived in her Madrid apartment since 1956, spending nearly 70 years in the same home before her eviction at age 87.
Urbagestión also claims the Ministry of Housing and Casa 47 never made an offer to buy the property. That claim falls apart fast. Ministry sources say an offer was made. After that, Urbagestión “cut off contact instantly.” The same thing happened when a 900-euro rent split between Maricarmen and the Ministry was proposed. Even a last-minute offer from a well-known writer to pay Maricarmen’s debt and rent got no reply. Calls from officials went unanswered as the eviction date closed in.
The company’s statement accuses the Sindicato de Inquilinas of “pressures, intentional disqualifications and disproportionate and unjustified coercion.” Urbagestión is now seeking 10,000 euros for being called a “fondo buitre.” Carolina Vilariño, the union’s spokesperson, says their only “offense” was describing what happened. She says Urbagestión refused to negotiate a less traumatic handover. Maricarmen got just half an hour to grab essentials. She was blocked from collecting the rest of her things.
Urbagestión leans on legality as its last line of defense. The company points out that the Madrid Provincial Court and later the Supreme Court upheld the eviction. The reason: Maricarmen’s rental contract had been subrogated twice—first to her mother, then to her. The union never said the eviction was illegal. They call it unjust and illegitimate. They also point to Franco-era laws that barred women from signing rental contracts, a rule that left Maricarmen exposed decades later.
EFE and Spanish media report that Urbagestión, operating as Urbagesa, specializes in buying buildings with tenants for later revaluation and resale after eviction and renovation. At the time of Maricarmen's case, the company had nearly 300 pharmacies for sale across about 20 Spanish cities, and was managed by brothers Ricardo and Fernando Alonso.
Urbagestión says it “tolerated” Maricarmen’s stay for three years after her contract was voided, supposedly out of a “pacifying spirit.” The record tells a different story. As soon as the company bought the building in 2018, it told Maricarmen it wanted her out. No rent was ever offered that she could actually pay.
The company even questions Maricarmen’s history in the flat. Urbagestión claims she did not live there for 70 years straight, pointing to a short period in 2001 when she was registered in Collado Mediano. Official records show she left for just four months for work. Then she came back home.
This case has already changed the national conversation. As reported earlier, the government was forced to respond. Urbagestión’s latest statement has only made the power gap between corporate landlords and vulnerable tenants more obvious. Legal arguments and denials cannot hide the truth. When law and market rules clash with basic human need, the weakest lose. That is the real story. This is not just about one eviction. It is about a system that lets this happen again and again across Spain.
