Squatters will take over your apartment while you are back home, and you will not get them out for years.
How it really is
Eviction is considerably faster today than it was a few years ago. In normally occupied residential complexes it is also a very rare situation.
What changes it
It most often affects abandoned houses or villas that stand unattended for months. An apartment in a residential complex is a completely different situation.
What we do about it
We recommend suitable security, check the condition of the property before purchase, and if you are not in Spain we help arrange regular checks.
2025 · reported cases / number of dwellings
Málaga0,0349 %1 case per 2.864 dwellings
Spain0,0559 %1 case per 1.790 dwellings
Barcelona0,1695 %1 case per 590 dwellings
Czech Republic0,0444 %1 case per 2.252 dwellings
The differences within Spain are enormous. That is why we publish the full data for every province below, not just the figure for Malaga.
Show all the data for Spain 2025↓
All Spanish provinces · 2025
Reported allanamiento and usurpación cases by province for 2025, relative to the number of dwellings
Province
Reported cases
Dwellings
Cases / year
1 case per
Barcelona
4.403
2.597.046
0,1695 %
1 : 590
Girona
719
507.421
0,1417 %
1 : 706
Tarragona
587
554.579
0,1058 %
1 : 945
Lleida
204
256.081
0,0797 %
1 : 1.255
Ceuta
19
28.315
0,0671 %
1 : 1.490
Illes Balears
433
652.123
0,0664 %
1 : 1.506
Toledo
275
439.385
0,0626 %
1 : 1.598
Valencia
856
1.488.908
0,0575 %
1 : 1.739
Las Palmas
316
551.237
0,0573 %
1 : 1.744
Alicante
772
1.350.006
0,0572 %
1 : 1.749
Almería
245
433.763
0,0565 %
1 : 1.770
Spain total
14.875
26.623.708
0,0559 %
1 : 1.790
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
280
537.463
0,0521 %
1 : 1.920
Melilla
15
29.347
0,0511 %
1 : 1.956
Murcia
425
844.100
0,0503 %
1 : 1.986
Sevilla
451
912.899
0,0494 %
1 : 2.024
Gipuzkoa
169
350.286
0,0482 %
1 : 2.073
Cádiz
301
648.306
0,0464 %
1 : 2.154
Álava
77
168.086
0,0458 %
1 : 2.183
Córdoba
189
414.025
0,0456 %
1 : 2.191
Czech Republicfor comparison
2.371
5.340.033
0,0444 %
1 : 2.252
Zaragoza
236
543.799
0,0434 %
1 : 2.304
Madrid
1.269
2.956.941
0,0429 %
1 : 2.330
Badajoz
161
398.348
0,0404 %
1 : 2.474
Castellón
177
446.872
0,0396 %
1 : 2.525
Bizkaia
210
556.704
0,0377 %
1 : 2.651
Huelva
119
320.045
0,0372 %
1 : 2.689
Málaga
348
996.557
0,0349 %
1 : 2.864
Guadalajara
65
187.779
0,0346 %
1 : 2.889
Huesca
59
171.843
0,0343 %
1 : 2.913
Navarra
112
331.104
0,0338 %
1 : 2.956
Granada
189
573.692
0,0329 %
1 : 3.035
Cantabria
115
383.642
0,0300 %
1 : 3.336
Valladolid
87
296.910
0,0293 %
1 : 3.413
Segovia
35
128.255
0,0273 %
1 : 3.664
Albacete
63
241.313
0,0261 %
1 : 3.830
Burgos
71
275.639
0,0258 %
1 : 3.882
La Rioja
54
211.333
0,0256 %
1 : 3.914
Ciudad Real
80
313.180
0,0255 %
1 : 3.915
Asturias
139
674.342
0,0206 %
1 : 4.851
A Coruña
141
686.961
0,0205 %
1 : 4.872
Jaén
67
373.720
0,0179 %
1 : 5.578
Pontevedra
85
528.828
0,0161 %
1 : 6.222
Ávila
27
171.947
0,0157 %
1 : 6.368
Cáceres
45
300.157
0,0150 %
1 : 6.670
León
49
354.725
0,0138 %
1 : 7.239
Lugo
37
269.067
0,0138 %
1 : 7.272
Cuenca
19
165.616
0,0115 %
1 : 8.717
Zamora
17
155.610
0,0109 %
1 : 9.154
Salamanca
22
246.123
0,0089 %
1 : 11.187
Palencia
10
116.431
0,0086 %
1 : 11.643
Soria
7
84.255
0,0083 %
1 : 12.036
Teruel
8
125.711
0,0064 %
1 : 15.714
Ourense
14
272.883
0,0051 %
1 : 19.492
So Malaga is not among the provinces pulling the Spanish figure up. In 2025 it was below the Spanish average and below the figure calculated the same way for the Czech Republic. At the same time we do not want to draw a universal conclusion from one year: in 2024 Malaga and the Czech Republic were at practically the same level.
Across 2024 and 2025 together, Malaga averages roughly 0.040 % a year and the Czech Republic 0.045 %. So it is more accurate to say that Malaga sits in roughly the same range as the Czech Republic, and well below the worst affected parts of Spain.
Where the Spanish average comes from
Catalonia39.8 % of all recorded cases14.7 % of Spanish dwellings
Andalusia12.8 % of all recorded cases17.6 % of Spanish dwellings
The Spanish average is therefore not a good description of any one region. In 2025 Catalonia accounted for almost 40 % of all recorded cases, even though it holds just under 15 % of Spanish dwellings. Andalusia, by contrast, accounted for 12.8 % of cases with 17.6 % of all dwellings.
The number of cases comes from police statistics for 2025. These are recorded offences, not the number of properties currently occupied nor the number of final convictions. The number of dwellings comes from the 2021 census, the last complete comparable count.
The Spanish figures cover the categories allanamiento de morada and usurpación de inmuebles. The Czech figures cover violation of the home (§ 178, statistical item 39) and unlawful interference with rights to a house, flat or non-residential premises (§ 208, item 115). The pairs correspond: entering an inhabited dwelling on one side, occupying a property on the other.
The two systems are close but not identical. They differ in their law and in how offences are recorded, and the Spanish category also covers some cases involving commercial premises. So treat the figures as an order-of-magnitude comparison, not as an exactly comparable measure.
This is one year. In 2024 the province of Malaga came out at roughly 0.045 % and the Czech Republic also at roughly 0.045 %, so practically the same. The 2025 difference arose mainly because the number of cases in Malaga fell year on year.
Official statistics are not published at the level of Marbella, Estepona or individual Costa del Sol towns. The most detailed level available is the province of Malaga.
In 30 seconds
Squatting in Spain is two different crimes, not one. An empty property gets the slow, fine-only offence; a furnished, connected home gets the serious one, where police can act immediately. In 2025, reported cases in Malaga province ran below your home country’s own rate.
Is squatting one crime, or two different ones?
Spanish law treats an empty property and a lived-in one completely differently, and almost everything about how frightening squatting really is depends on which box a property falls into. Occupying a property nobody lives in, peacefully, is usurpacion under article 245.2 of the Codigo Penal. It is a minor offence punished by a fine, not prison, and police cannot remove the occupiers on their own authority. This is the situation behind almost every long, painful story reported in the press: an empty inherited flat, unsold developer stock, a repossessed bank property, sitting unwatched for months.Entering or staying in someone’s actual home without permission is a different crime, allanamiento de morada, article 202. It carries 6 months to 2 years in prison, more with violence or intimidation, and police can act immediately once the situation is caught in the act. The Tribunal Supremo settled in 2020 exactly what counts as a home for this purpose: furniture inside, plus water, electricity and gas connected. How often the owner visits does not matter. A holiday apartment used twice a year, fully furnished and connected, is legally a home, not an empty shell.
Usurpacion (empty property)
What it looks like
A vacant, unfurnished property nobody has visited for months.
The law
Codigo Penal art. 245.2: a fine, not prison.
Can police remove them on the spot?
No. This route needs a court order, and it is the slow one.
Allanamiento (a home)
What it looks like
A furnished property with water, electricity and gas connected, visited occasionally or lived in.
The law
Codigo Penal art. 202: 6 months to 2 years in prison.
Can police remove them on the spot?
Yes, if the situation is caught in the act. This is the fast route.
A managed holiday apartment sits in the second column, not the first.
Does furniture alone decide it, or does someone have to be living there full time?Furniture plus connected utilities decide it, and full-time living is not required. The Tribunal Supremo’s 2020 ruling is explicit: a dwelling is any place that is inhabited, even occasionally, not only a primary residence. A second home used a few weeks a year, properly furnished and connected, is a morada under Spanish law.
What decides whether police act immediately, rather than sending it to court?
Being legally a "home" is not, by itself, enough for an immediate police removal. A second test applies, called flagrancia: the situation has to be caught happening, or to have just happened, with direct evidence, such as a forced door, an alarm trigger, a neighbour who saw it, or footage. If an owner finds out days or weeks later, that immediacy is gone, and the case goes to a judge like any other. The same is true if the occupiers produce any paperwork suggesting they already live there, even a forged rental contract: police stop deciding on the spot and hand it to a court.There is no fixed legal deadline for any of this. Several Spanish alarm companies and desokupa firms advertise a "48 hour rule". It does not exist in any statute or official instruction, and an independent fact-check confirmed as much directly with a criminal judge and a legal academic. What actually decides the outcome is how quickly somebody notices and reports it, not a clock written into the law.
What is commonly claimedWhat the law actually says
Police must remove squatters within 48 hours
No such rule exists anywhere in Spanish law. Immediate removal depends on flagrancia, catching the situation happening, which has no fixed time limit attached to it.
A furnished holiday home cannot be squatted because the owner will win in court
Winning in court is likely, but it still takes time once the case reaches a judge. The real question is whether it is caught early enough to avoid court altogether.
If occupiers show any document, the police have to believe them
Police do not decide who is telling the truth. Any paperwork, real or forged, is enough to send the case to a judge instead of settling it on the spot. This is exactly why detection speed matters more than the paperwork itself.
1
Is the property furnished with utilities connected?
Who decidesDecided by Tribunal Supremo STS 587/2020
What it grantsThe property is legally a morada; the fast route can apply
If noAn empty, disconnected property gets the slow usurpacion route, whatever the address.
2
Was the entry caught in the act, with direct evidence?
Who decidesAssessed by police at the scene, Instruccion 6/2020
What it grantsPolice can remove the occupiers immediately
If noNo fixed deadline applies; the case goes to a judge instead of the door.
3
Since 3 April 2025: does the case reach criminal court at all?
Who decidesLey Organica 1/2025
What it grantsAllanamiento and violent usurpacion now qualify for a fast-track trial
If noPeaceful usurpacion of an empty property still follows the ordinary, slower procedure, confirmed by the Fiscalia’s own June 2025 circular.
One NO at any gate is the difference between a phone call and a court case, not a reason to assume the worst.
Did the 2025 law reform make eviction faster for every kind of case?No, and this is worth being precise about. The reform added the serious crimes, an inhabited home and violent occupation, to the fast-track trial system. The Fiscalia’s own circular a few months later confirmed that peaceful occupation of an empty property, the most common kind reported, was deliberately left on the ordinary, slower procedure. The reform helped the category a holiday apartment falls into; it did not speed up the category behind most of the press coverage.
If it happens, what should an owner not do alone?
Changing the locks yourself, even on your own property, can be prosecuted as coaccion under article 172 of the Codigo Penal. That carries 6 months to 3 years in prison or a fine, if someone is already occupying it. A separate 2026 ruling held that cutting off utilities to someone with no legal claim to the property is generally not the same offence. This is a recent, narrow finding. It does not cover changing a lock, and it does not apply to a tenant who simply stops paying rent. Anyone in this situation should get a Spanish lawyer involved before taking physical action, not after.The single most useful thing an owner can produce is dated evidence that the property was in use shortly before the intrusion. This matters both for the police at the scene and for any court case afterwards: cleaning records, a guest check-out, an alarm log, a neighbour or a building manager who noticed. A property nobody visits for months produces none of this. That is the real reason the slow cases cluster around exactly that kind of property.A tenant who stops paying rent and refuses to leave, an "inquiokupa", is a completely different, civil situation, not a crime. It appears in neither country’s police statistics. It is a real risk for anyone renting a property out, but it is not the subject of this page. Buying a property that already has a tenant in place is covered in full on its own guide.
Is a non-paying tenant the same problem as a squatter?No. A tenant who stops paying rent has a legal right to be there until a civil eviction process removes them. That process is entirely different from either of the two crimes described above. It is a real risk worth planning for if you intend to rent out the property. But it is not squatting, and it does not appear in either country’s crime statistics.
What actually prevents this, and what does insurance cover?
Detection speed decides almost everything above, more than the law itself does. A managed apartment in a gated development gets noticed within hours if anything is wrong: a cleaner or manager coming and going, neighbours present year round, rental turnover every few days. An unfurnished property nobody visits for months can sit unnoticed for far longer. It can stay unnoticed long enough for the slow, fine-only route to be the only one available, however it eventually resolves.A standard Spanish household insurance policy typically includes legal-defence cover, alongside the usual building and contents cover. It pays a lawyer’s fees for exactly the kind of process this page describes. It is not a guarantee against occupation happening, and it does not remove anyone from a property by itself. It pays for the legal process once you need it. Insurance for a Costa del Sol apartment typically runs a few hundred euros a year, arranged around the time you take handover of the keys. We introduce a specialist rather than sell a policy ourselves.
Does buying in a managed complex actually remove the risk, or just make it less likely?It makes it far less likely, not impossible. Nothing removes the risk entirely. What a managed, occupied development changes is detection speed: a stranger in a building with a conserje, neighbours and regular turnover gets noticed fast. That is the one factor that consistently decides whether a case stays a phone call or becomes a months-long court process.
Straight talk
How worried should a Costa del Sol buyer actually be?
In 2025, Malaga province recorded occupation and home-invasion offences against roughly 0.035 percent of its housing stock, about 1 property in 2.864. That was below the equivalent Czech Republic figure of 0.044 percent for the same year. Across 2024 and 2025 combined the two countries sit close together, with Malaga slightly lower on average. This was not true in 2024 taken alone, when the two were roughly level, so the honest claim is a dated one, not a permanent law of nature. The figures also mix several offence types together and count reports, not convictions. Treat them as an upper bound rather than a precise measure.The real practical answer is simpler than the statistic: a furnished, occasionally used apartment in a managed development is legally the harder-to-target category under Spanish law. It is also the category that gets noticed fastest if anything does go wrong. The slow, frightening cases reported in the press are overwhelmingly the other kind: empty, disconnected properties nobody visits, concentrated in and around Barcelona rather than the Costa del Sol. This is general information about how Spanish law and the 2025 reform actually work, not legal advice on any specific property. The recent utilities ruling in particular is worth a lawyer’s confirmation before anyone relies on it.Arevont checks the type of development, its security and how often the property will realistically stand empty before recommending it, at no cost to the buyer. We also help arrange a specialist insurance introduction and a local check-in schedule where the owner is not resident.
Frequently asked questions about squatters
If I only visit my apartment twice a year, does that make it an easier target under Spanish law?
No. The Tribunal Supremo’s 2020 ruling settled this directly: what makes a property a protected "morada" is furniture plus connected water, electricity and gas, not how often the owner is physically present. A twice-a-year holiday apartment that is furnished and connected sits in the same legal category as a full-time home.
How is the Malaga statistic actually counted, and can I check it myself?
The Ministerio del Interior publishes reported cases by province in a public criminality portal, and INE publishes the number of dwellings from the national census. Dividing one by the other gives the rate quoted here. It counts reports to police, not convictions, and it groups a few related offences together, so it is best read as an upper bound rather than an exact figure. Both source tables are linked on this page.
What is the single most useful thing I can do before I own the property, rather than after?
Choose a managed, occupied type of development over an isolated or seasonal one, and arrange a check-in schedule if you will not be resident. Detection speed is what actually decides the outcome, more than any single security product does on its own. It decides whether a case stays a same-day phone call or turns into a slow court process.
Is an alarm enough on its own?
An alarm helps you find out fast, but by itself it does not put anyone at the door. It needs someone local able to respond and gather evidence quickly, which is exactly what a managed development or a local check-in service provides and an alarm alone cannot.
The other three worries
Short-term rental
You buy a property in order to rent it out short term, and only then find out you are not allowed to.