Almost one in four landlords in Spain are dealing with squatters or tenants who have stopped paying rent (inquiokupas), a survey has suggested.
The poll was carried out by the Association of Rental Property Owners (Asval), who spoke to thousands of their landlord members across the country.
Some 24.58% said at least one of their rented properties was either illegally occupied or involved in court proceedings due to a tenant stopping paying rent or refusing to leave once their contract expired.
That compares with 19.92% in 2025, representing an increase of almost five percentage points.
The findings come as Spain’s treatment of okupacion and so-called inquiokupacion remains at the centre of an increasingly heated political debate.
Congress this week backed a non-binding PP motion calling on the government to introduce procedures allowing illegal squatters to be removed from properties within 24 to 48 hours.
Landlords increasingly taking out insurance
Asval’s survey suggests concerns about problem tenants are also changing the way owners protect their properties.
Almost 40% of respondents said they had recently taken out rent-default insurance because they feared becoming victims of okupacion or inquiokupacion.
The latter term is widely used in Spain to describe situations in which someone initially enters a property legally as a tenant but later stops paying rent while remaining in the home.
When landlords were asked what worried them most about renting out their properties, 88.25% cited a lack of legal certainty, while 81.29% pointed to illegal occupation or the possibility of tenants failing to pay.
Rent controls were a concern for 46.28%, while 11.27% were worried about potential penalties related to failing to renovate properties.
Who responded to the survey?
The figures do not mean that one in four rental homes across Spain is occupied illegally.
The survey covers Asval members, and its 24.58% figure includes owners whose properties are involved in court proceedings over non-payment or an expired contract as well as illegal occupation.
Some 85.85% of respondents were private individuals.
Most were also landlords with multiple properties. According to the report, 43.17% owned between two and four rental homes, 19.18% had between five and nine and 17.99% had between 10 and 100.
Another 15.83% had only one rental property, while 3.84% controlled portfolios exceeding 100 rented properties.
Madrid accounted for the largest concentration of properties managed by respondents, followed by Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza.
Holiday lets fall as room rentals rise
Long-term renting remains overwhelmingly the most common business among Asval members, with 94.96% saying they have properties rented on that basis, virtually unchanged from 94.78% last year.
However, holiday rentals fell from 10.82% to 8.39%, while other short-term rentals declined from 13.81% to 11.27%.
Room rentals moved in the opposite direction, increasing from 6.34% to 7.67%.
Asval members said their priorities include greater dialogue with public administrations before housing laws are introduced or amended, better legal advice and measures addressing rent arrears and illegal occupation.
