British property owners in Spain are being forced to sell their holiday homes as an underground network of squatters exploits legal loopholes to occupy homes for months – sometimes years – with little chance of swift eviction.
Paul Stuart, a Marbella-based estate agent with Palm Estates, says the situation is deteriorating rapidly, with police and courts unable to respond fast enough to protect victims.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” Stuart, 44, said. “It’s a ticking time bomb. There is so much anger that I fear we are going to see a lot more cases ending in violence.”
Speaking to MailOnline he added: “Since Covid, there’s been a perfect storm of surging rents, stagnant wages and lack of new housing; it’s caused a noticeable increase in squatting. I’ve had to confront squatters myself and I have been threatened with stabbing twice.”
ORGANISED SQUATTERS
The Costa del Sol, long a draw for retirees and second-home buyers, is now a target for increasingly organised squatter operations.
“They are really clever and know how to manipulate the law,” Stuart said. “It’s disgusting and horrible what they do. You feel terrible for these homeowners – most of them have saved all their lives to buy a place here and it’s just been ruined.”
CRIMINAL DEALINGS
While acknowledging that some squatters may be facing genuine hardship, Stuart was clear about the scale of criminality: “The majority of cases I see are just straight up criminals.”
He detailed how squatter gangs operate: “They stake out properties to make sure they are empty, before breaking in and calling a locksmith to change the locks.”
He added that he knows of “at least one professional locksmith who is actively working for a squatter gang”.
Some seized homes are later turned into drug dens or brothels, he said.
