Ahead of the government's announcement, the lawyer for Maricarmen, who has become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis, said she would be allowed to return to her home after reaching a deal with the company that owns it on Monday.

Abascal, who was admitted to hospital after being forcibly removed from the apartment on a stretcher, was unable to attend the meeting and is yet to sign the deal.

In the north-eastern city of Zaragoza, another woman's eviction was temporarily suspended on Tuesday, the European Pressphoto Agency reported.

Esmeralda Tejero, 51, has lived in a flat in the city for eight years with her 11-year-old daughter, but stopped paying her rent some time ago as she could not afford it on top of her daily living costs, she told Catalan newspaper el Periódico on Monday.

Protests calling for housing relief measures broke out last week in Madrid and have spread to other cities including Barcelona, Seville, Malaga and Cadiz.

Thousands marched through the capital on Saturday demanding stronger protection for tenants in the face of a housing shortage and soaring rents.

They have warned that they would continue to protest if the government did not meet their demands.

The Bank of Spain estimates the country is short of 700,000 homes, based on the gap between demand and new construction.

House prices have risen by 12.2% in the past year, according to figures for the second quarter of 2026 from national statistics institute INE.

The shortage in rental housing means that costs rose by 8.5% in 2025, according to real estate firm Idealista, with Madrid alone seeing an increase of 9.7% in rents. It said Barcelona and Madrid were Spain's most expensive cities to rent a home, at €23.8 per square metre and €22.7 per square metre respectively.