From insurance to mafias: the big business after the squatting

In the field of prevention, one of the most demanded products to shield homes are called Antiokupas doors. «Reinforced, of steel and about 70 kilos, with a lock that does not give access to the hype, but has a slot to insert the key, and antipalanca and ‘anti -site’ system,” says Jordi Lázaro, owner of Doors Closed. He opened his company, based in Mataró (Barcelona), five years ago and the trend has been ascending. “We do not know if there is a greater demand for product, or because we are well positioned,” he admits, although he adds: “Sometimes sales are related to news on television, when we notice an increase». Lázaro’s clients are both large platforms that offer them to the final consumer, as individuals who seek to protect second residences, communities of neighbors or banking entities. It sells between 250 and 300 doors a year, and its price ranges between 600 and 700 euros, below a armored one.

For its part, the Insurers They have also detected user demand due to the potential risk of occupying their homes. In June 2023, a direct line was a pioneer in offering complementary coverage to the home policy, for 10 euros more a year. “70 percent of our clients have decided to include it,” explains its commercial director, Diego Ferreiro. A few months later, it was also launched as an independent product, for 24 euros per year, with a limit of 33,900 euros in all its coverage. From legal advice to the payment of supplies in occupied house – the law does not allow the owner to discharge them – and even a provisional accommodation for those affected “this year we have had 250 cases, equally in habitual housing and in second residences” , they detail from the company.

The launch was criticized by other insurers, such as Mapfre – “we have to be serious and offer products that respond to the needs of the people,” said its president – but Ferreiro remembers that The figure of complaints of squatting in Spain is similar to that of fire in homes and “no one would say that the risk is not real». Other companies such as Mutua Madrid or Axa have already joined their initiative.

«Uncertainty mobilizes us. Depending on certain levels of risk, knowing that robberies occur, there are those who decide to ensure the content of the house. Before a known risk one acts rationally, because we are able to measure it. But if we don’t know if something is going to happen or not, the usual trend is to overact», Explains Rafael Martínez, security expert and professor at the University of Barcelona, ​​about the rise of contracting products or services to shield homes to possible raids. «Before the softened breeding ground, there is a business road». And, «that of fear is a resource that is not only used in home security matters, but also in health. It is the most atavistic and works, ”Maria Lluisa Solé, marketing and advertising professor in the same faculty corroborates.

According to the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the legal route until an owner can expel the raidors and recover his home is around two years, although sometimes the process lengthens. Among the reasons, because “the Royal Decree of the Government during the pandemic to paralyze evictions in cases of vulnerability has been extended again until December 2025,” explains Arantxa Goenaga, lawyer of AF legis. The wait encourages some owners to resort to extrajudicial eviction companies. Resource that advises even the own National Association of Affected by the Occupationwhose president, Antonio Miranda, explains: «They sign some contracts in which they do not guarantee any type of result, while justice works, but for that you have to have a good lawyer, or the process can be eternalized. Really It is a big business for many companies, while the owner faces a huge economic burden because the State does not fulfill its function in the face of the social housing deficit».

Minors like hook

The ‘face B’ of that “great business”, the most effective, is that of the extrajudicial evictions. First was Desokupa, by Daniel Esteve, who offers his services from about 3,000 euros. To mediation and access controls, to try to expel the raidors, some companies add up to coercion and violence, such as Antiokupa Tarraco, whose leader is in provisional prison after an operation of the Mossos d’Esquadra, accused of injuries , Purple raid, damage, coercion, harassment, robbery with force and belonging to criminal organization. In fact, there are indications of their participation by up to 62 criminal acts. A court of Barcelona, ​​Instruction 12, investigates another of those companies, Stop Okupas, for the siege and the aggressions to five squatters and the tenant of a Poble-Sec building.

There are also mafias that show off the housing deficit in Spain. Some, as happened in Barcelona, ​​even They use minors to avoid evictions. The children crying behind the door served for the Mossos to discard criminal activity in the occupied floors, and activate social services, thus delaying the eviction. The band that was after the ‘performance’ realized the properties to third parties. Mostly vulnerable families in an irregular situation. A practice by which criminals pocketed about 24,000 euros per month, paying 500 to three mothers with two children, who settled in the homes for 24 or 72 hours, once they had occupied them.

This January, in Carabanchel (Madrid), another mafia kupó about thirty floors of an urbanization, still without living, to ‘sell them’, between 2,000 and 3,000 euros, to families of Peruvian origin, who were offered when they were in the Social dining room tail of a neighborhood church. Criminals find a business road in a double problem: the complexity of expelling the squatters and the small housing park. «Public authorities have to provide housing solutions, meanwhile, the squad is a big business for companies and mafias, and who pays it is the owner», Warns Miranda.