In recent years, the fight against investment funds that speculate with housing has achieved significant judicial milestones in the Spanish State. The combination of European regulations, the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, and neighborhood organization is beginning to draw legal limits on the actions of these ‘vulture funds’. Directive 93/13/EEC, which protects consumers from unfair clauses, constitutes the foundation upon which many of the judicial victories are based, as it allows declaring null and void those conditions that cause an imbalance in mortgage or rental contracts.

One of the most notable precedents is the Supreme Court ruling that recognizes the right of pre-emption for tenants of homes that were sold by the administration to a fund. The lawyer Mariano Benítez de Lugo, who represented those affected, managed to get the high court to allow them to buy the property at the same price the fund acquired it for (around €50,000), and not at the speculative market value (which reached €500,000). Although the ruling does not establish formal jurisprudence, it opens a path for thousands of families who lost the protection of their homes following the privatization of public housing stock.

In parallel, collective organization has proven to be an effective tool. The Madrid Tenants’ Union forced a historic agreement with Blackstone, the country’s largest private landlord, in 2021, achieving 84 new contracts with frozen rents and seven-year terms. Currently, residents of 17,000 homes in Madrid are organizing to prevent a new mass sale of these properties and to demand their public management through Casa 47, the state housing company. In Lavapiés, the Tribulete 7 building filed the first collective criminal complaint for real estate harassment against a fund, denouncing construction work and actions intended to force the 54 resident families to leave.

These cases demonstrate that, despite the historical impunity of large funds, the legal protection of consumers and organized social pressure constitute real avenues to halt evictions and impose limits on financial speculation regarding the right to housing.