When the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, launched the 112 Okupación phone line in June 2022, she did so as one of the main tools of the Community of Madrid to combat a phenomenon she placed among her political priorities. Four years later, the service’s activity follows a different direction: calls are decreasing and the main official indicators on squatting also show a downward trend. However, the Executive has expanded its functions.
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The decline is evident from the documentation obtained by EL PAÍS through a public information access request, which allows reconstructing the service’s evolution since its creation. During the little more than six months it was active in 2022, it received 1,179 calls, a figure that rose to 1,552 in 2023, its historical maximum. Since then, activity has decreased: 1,039 inquiries in 2024, 994 in 2025, and barely 327 in the first five months of this year. Between June 2025 and May 2026, it recorded 869 calls, which means an average of 2.38 per day.
The decline occurs despite the fact that the Madrid Executive has progressively strengthened a device inaugurated so that citizens could alert about possible squatting and owners could receive guidance on their rights and the procedures to follow. In May 2025, Ayuso signed a protocol with the Madrid Bar Association, the Alcalá de Henares Bar Association, and the Madrid Procurators to offer free advice and representation to people affected by housing squatting. At the presentation of that agreement, she assured that the Community “would not stand aside” in the face of illegal squatting and announced that those affected would also have psychological care available in the network of Victim Assistance Offices (OAVD).
Months later, from January 1, 2026, attention was expanded to conflicts related to the so-called “non-criminal squatting” or inquiokupación, that is, cases derived from breach of lease contracts. According to the Executive’s response, a total of 75 files have been managed in this area, which “reflects the progressive expansion of the spectrum of situations attended within the service.”
However, the expansion has not resulted in greater demand for this phone line, which is integrated into the Municipal Coordination Center (Cecom), from where other resources of the Madrid Security and Emergency Agency 112 are also managed. The historical series shows that inquiries continue to decline.
A total of 5,091 calls have been received since its launch until May 2026, although not all are directly related to squatting. According to the documentation sent by the Community, 3,679 inquiries correspond “specifically to issues related to the squatting of properties,” but the reason for the remaining 1,412 is not detailed. What is detailed is that, since June 2022, there have been 327 calls related to newly detected squatting, while most are made to request information about squatting.
A relevant fact is that the figures do not differentiate between interlocutors, so the same person may have made several calls about the same case. Among all that activity, the Government assures that “the service has helped prevent 56 attempts of housing squatting, thanks to the immediate activation of coordination mechanisms with the Security Forces and Corps.”
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Official indicators decline
The downward trend in calls to 112 Okupación coincides with that of other official indicators. One of the most common is the incidents known for home invasion and usurpation of properties, recorded by the Ministry of the Interior. That is, the complaints registered by the National Police and the autonomous security forces. In the Community of Madrid, they went from 1,451 in 2024 to 1,269 in 2025, a decrease of 12.5%. In the whole of Spain, the reduction was 9.4%, down to 14,875 cases recorded.
The Penal Code does not classify squatting as a crime, but sanctions usurpation. This consists of accessing an uninhabited property without authorization, usually without violence, and against the owner’s will. Different is home invasion, which occurs when someone enters or remains without permission in an inhabited home. In the latter case, it is a more serious crime and, once it is proven that the property constitutes the complainant’s home, the security forces can proceed with eviction immediately.
In response to EL PAÍS, the Government Delegation offers another statistic, referring to the number of squatted homes within the scope of the National Police in the region. This also follows a downward trend: in 2023 the figure was 2,532, compared to 1,331 in 2024 and 766 in 2025. The Community of Madrid currently has an estimated stock of 3,054,762 homes.
In November, the Government delegate, Francisco Martín, referred to this reduction and called “extremely serious” and “irresponsible” what he described as a strategy to generate fear among the population, despite what the figures indicate.
The Más Madrid deputy in the Assembly, Hugo Martínez Abarca, assures that “the supposed squatting problem has never been a real problem” and considers that it has a “minimal impact on reality.” “Ayuso, like the entire right wing, has used squatting to avoid facing the housing crisis. When millions of people cannot access a home because speculation, vulture funds, and large holders set impossible prices, this invention makes it seem that the real victims of this crisis are the owners,” he concludes.
The data from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) show a similar evolution in procedures related to rental conflicts. Evictions due to non-payment of rent in the Community of Madrid went from 2,375 in 2024 to 1,931 in 2025. The downward trend continued during the first quarter of 2026, when 454 were executed for this reason, 26.1% less than in the same period the previous year. Added to this is the decrease in verbal trials for illegal housing occupation: between January and March, 28 procedures were filed in the region, 57.6% less than in the first quarter of 2025.