Spain's housing crisis: The evictors | DW Documentary
Spain’s housing crisis: How Ángela Mendoza could turn evictions into a lucrative business model.
Spain is in the grip of a massive housing crisis and unauthorized settling sharply on the rise. Ángela Mendoza has found an unconventional way to return apartments back to the their owners.
Mendoza used to be a flamenco dancer, but the pandemic and personal setbacks forced her to start over. She hired a group of strong young men and launched her own security firm. Its specialty: Removing squatters and non-paying tenants from apartments all across Spain.
Ángela and her team have already returned hundreds of properties to their owners. She’s developed her own psychological approach — a mix of firm pressure and empathetic negotiation.
Business is booming. Last year alone, Spain recorded nearly 20,000 illegal occupations, and the number keeps climbing. Courts are overwhelmed, and obtaining an official eviction order can take years. But Mendoza’s work is divisive. Critics accuse her of serving the interests of wealthy investors and landlords at a time when many people in Spain are unable to secure housing for reasons beyond their control.
00:00 Intro
01:12 Unpaid rent in Castell de Ferro
04:13 Relief for the owners
05:15 Spain’s housing market: Extreme pressures
06:03 Ángela receives threats
06:25 A citizens’ initiative against evictions
08:10 Ángela responds to criticism
09:48 Accusations against Spain’s bureaucracy
11:24 No easy answers
#documentary #dwdocumentary #dwdocs #spain #housing #eviction
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Video “Spain's housing crisis: The evictors | DW Documentary” was uploaded on 11/10/2025 by DW Documentary Youtube channel.



































Portraying tenants who can't pay their rent as the villains is somewhat unfair, because they are not to blame for the crisis.
The housing crisis in Spain stems from several factors:
– A significant imbalance between supply and demand, especially in large cities like Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, because housing construction has not kept pace with population growth or rising demand. At the same time, there are many vacant apartments in rural or less sought-after regions.
– Real estate speculation, primarily by large investment funds and foreign investors, is driving up prices in both the purchase and rental markets. Many apartments are rented out to tourists, further exacerbating the shortage in the regular housing market.
– High construction costs and a lack of available building land and skilled workers make it difficult to create new housing. Despite a moderate decrease in construction costs, they remain above 2019 levels, which burdens investors and construction companies.
– The proportion of social housing is very low, making it difficult for low-income households to access affordable housing. The number of social housing units in Spain is low compared to other European countries. Cities there do little to combat gentrification.
– The high rent levels mean that many people in Spain can hardly find sufficiently affordable housing to rent, and the average age for leaving the parental home is over 30 years.
– The tourism boom and the increase in international students and digital nomads are further increasing the pressure on the housing market. Immigration of affluent people is not uncommon: retirees from the USA, UK, Germany, etc., who find their retirement home there – this drives up rents.
These factors together are causing a social and economic crisis in Spain's housing market, with increasing housing shortages, high prices, and growing dissatisfaction among the population. The weakest members of the population, on whose shoulders the functioning of the everyday economy rests, are being portrayed here as scapegoats and criminals. Politics, both national and regional, simply needs to do more to prevent these conditions. The Spanish economy itself is doing well. Who benefits from real estate speculation and tourism?
Austria could serve as a model here, because the legal regulations ensure:
1. landlords the right to rent increases, even if they are not contractually stipulated (which is why they are not)
2. tenants confidence in moderate (!) increases, i.e., proportionate increases, not capitalist Wild West conditions.
And dismantling "bureaucracy" will bring back the problems that the bureaucracy had eliminated.
😢
Most landlords are good people who are not rich. Most are living paycheck to paycheck because they are paying for two mortgages. People only care about tenants because they can relate, but they should respect landlords also because without them, the tenants would not have a place to rent.
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