"Tomorrow an 87-year-old woman is going to be evicted!": the cry that interrupts Ayuso in the middle of a real estate speculation fair

Isabel Díaz Ayuso had already inaugurated The District and was touring the exhibitors at the real estate fair when several activists interrupted her. They threw leaflets next to her entourage and one of them shouted at her about the eviction scheduled for this Wednesday of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old neighbor who has been living in the same apartment for seven decades. "Tomorrow an 87-year-old lady will be evicted without a housing alternative! Comply with the law and get her an alternative!", he demanded while security personnel removed the protesters. The protest also left a strong smell after the release of stink bombs in the venue.

The action had started outside IFEMA. A hundred people, according to the convening groups, gathered at the entrances with banners, smoke, and slogans against speculation. Part of the protesters tried to block one of the entrances and the Police evicted them. The posters and leaflets displayed messages such as "Rentiers out of our neighborhoods" and "Madrid to live, not to invest". The organizers reproach Ayuso and the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, for receiving large investors while many residents have difficulties continuing to live in their neighborhoods.

Ayuso speaks of fearful owners in the face of investors

The District is held for the first time in Madrid after four editions in Barcelona. Ayuso inaugurated the meeting this Tuesday at IFEMA, which the organization expects more than 15,000 professionals from the sector to attend until Thursday. In her speech, she defended collaboration between administrations and companies, rejected intervening in rental prices, and assured that "property is sacred". She also maintained that more and more owners are afraid to put their homes up for rent because, in her opinion, they are "persecuted."

Before that audience, the president presented her Government's housing measures and once again championed the Plan Vive, with which she expects to reach 16,500 affordable rental flats. Some of its tenants, however, have complained that community fees, IBI, and garage spaces increase the amount they end up paying. The Community of Madrid also maintains its rejection of declaring areas of strained residential market, the mechanism provided for in the state Housing Law to limit certain rent increases.

The protest comes in a city where the advertised rental price reached 23.3 euros per square meter in August, 5.1% more than a year earlier. In the Community as a whole, the price of housing purchase rose 12.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026. The groups that attended IFEMA see Ayuso's presence at The District as a defense of an investment model that, they denounce, exacerbates the expulsion of residents from their homes.

Maricarmen faces eviction again

Maricarmen has lived in the Retiro district since 1956 and faces her fourth eviction attempt this Wednesday. The company that owns the flat intends to raise the rent from the approximately 500 euros she was paying to 2,650 euros per month. The woman receives a pension of about 1,350 euros. Her case was the one activists decided to bring to Ayuso's tour of the fair.

The Madrid City Council maintains that it has offered her assistance in finding another home and emergency accommodation options. The Tenants' Union believes that these proposals do not guarantee her an adequate alternative and demands a solution that allows her to remain in her home. The criticism from the groups also extends to the central Government, to which they ask for measures that protect vulnerable people in situations like hers.

The mobilization at IFEMA brought together the Tenants' Union with housing organizations from Tetuán, Carabanchel, and Vallecas, among other groups. The Tetuán union also demanded to open negotiations with Blackstone over the situation of families in the Tiziano-Dulcinea blocks. Tonight, neighbors and activists plan to accompany Maricarmen to her doorway to try to stop the eviction scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday at eight in the morning.