Catalonia recorded 5,913 criminal complaints linked to illegal housing occupation in 2025, nearly 40% of all cases registered in Spain, according to the Interior Ministry's Statistical Crime Portal data reported by EFE. The national total fell from 16,426 cases in 2024 to 14,875 in 2025, a year-on-year drop of 9.4%.

For property owners in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, the figures mean the region remains the main focus of a problem that still generates more complaints than any other part of Spain, even after a sharp fall. The data also matter for residents trying to separate different offences, because the official statistics group together two legal categories with very different meanings and consequences.

According to EFE, the Interior Ministry says the dataset does not distinguish between allanamiento de morada, unlawful entry into an occupied home such as a main residence or second home, and usurpación, the occupation of an empty property or one owned by a bank or another owner but not being lived in at the time. The ministry adds that the more serious cases involving occupied homes are the least common in Spain, while most cases involve empty dwellings.

The crimes of unlawful entry into homes and property usurpation fell by 9.4% in 2025, with 14,875 cases registered, while Catalonia remained the region with the most cases, on 5,913, according to data from the Interior Ministry's Statistical Crime Portal reported by EFE.

Catalonia fell faster than the Spanish average, but stayed far ahead

The 5,913 complaints recorded in Catalonia in 2025 were down 15.6% on the 7,009 logged a year earlier, a steeper fall than the national average. Even so, the region still concentrated almost four out of every ten complaints filed in Spain, a share well above its population weight.

After Catalonia, the next highest totals were much lower. Andalusia registered 1,909 complaints, down 13.5% year on year, followed by the Comunitat Valenciana on 1,805, up 2.1%, and the Community of Madrid on 1,269, down 12.5%, according to the same Interior Ministry figures cited by EFE and Europa Press.

  • Catalonia: 5,913 complaints in 2025, down 15.6%
  • Spain total: 14,875 complaints in 2025, down 9.4%
  • Andalusia: 1,909 complaints, down 13.5%
  • Comunitat Valenciana: 1,805 complaints, up 2.1%
  • Community of Madrid: 1,269 complaints, down 12.5%

Other regions with comparatively high totals in 2025 were the Canary Islands with 596 complaints, Castilla-La Mancha with 502, the Basque Country with 456, the Balearic Islands with 433, and Murcia with 425, according to Europa Press.

What the figures do and do not show

The official statistics measure complaints known to Spain's security forces. They do not provide a breakdown between the two criminal categories at the point the complaint is recorded, because that legal classification is made later by the court handling the case, Europa Press reported.

That distinction matters for owners and tenants in Catalonia. A case involving unlawful entry into an occupied home can trigger a different legal response from a case involving the occupation of a long-empty flat. The Interior Ministry, as cited by EFE, says the most serious cases involving a person's home are a minority and that most cases concern empty properties.

Separate reporting cited in the source materials points in the same direction. El Periódico reported that only one in ten occupation complaints in Catalonia in 2025 involved a first or second residence, with most complaints relating instead to properties that were not serving as someone's home.

Mediation and court changes are starting to reshape cases

The source materials also point to procedural changes in 2025. Legal analyses cited for this article say Organic Law 1/2025 introduced a requirement for an appropriate non-judicial dispute resolution attempt in certain civil matters, while other changes were presented as a way to speed up some proceedings linked to eviction claims. The materials do not provide Catalonia-specific outcome data showing how far those changes have altered complaint numbers.

For residents and landlords, the immediate practical point is narrower than some public debate suggests: the 2025 crime data show a decline across Spain and in Catalonia, but they also confirm that Catalonia remains the region with the highest number of complaints by a wide margin. Anyone facing a specific case still needs to determine first whether it concerns an occupied home or an empty property, because the legal route depends on that distinction.

Reported by Source Text Link, Nuria Santesteban, europapress.es, Dani Cordero, EFE, idealista.com, eleconomista.es, Gisela Boada, Alessandro Elia, catalannews.com, Abogada Carmen Araolaza, Julia Fargas Blegal, lpaspain.com, legalmondo.com, Hostify, russpain.com.