BarcelonaBlue screen-printed letters on the staircase welcome you in English, Catalan and Spanish to the building on Avenida de Madrid in Barcelona, where Walid Guerchouch has lived with his parents and two younger brothers for thirty years. At first glance, it looks more like the entrance to a hostel than to a neighborhood community. It has been like this since the Vandor fund acquired the entire property in 2022. He then informed all residents that he would not renew their leases and that he would turn their flats into colivings— room rental with some common space — for students. Today most already work as such. There are only four families left in the property who, like Guerchouch’s, every day have to step on the message of the staircase which, paradoxically, reminds them that they are no longer welcome in what had always been their home.
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Similar cases spread throughout the city. Vandor alone currently has 13 entire buildings in Barcelona. There are in Balmes street, in Muntaner, in Amigó, in Consell de Cent, in Nàpols… There are almost 200 flats, which he now wants to turn into colivings. The same procedure has been followed in all of them. On Carrer Avenir, for example, residents such as Joana Martí received the letter at the beginning of 2025 notifying them of the property’s change of ownership. After twenty years of living right in front of the house where she was raised and where her parents still live, Martí and her three children received the news like a bucket of cold water. “Someone who doesn’t even know who you are decides that you can’t continue with the life you lead. It’s like they dropped a bomb on the building,” he laments.
In the case of Carrer Avenir, they are just at the beginning of the process. All contracts are in place and no neighbors have left yet. In other properties the reality is different. Many flats have already been vacated and the neighbors who are still there have had to add to the uncertainty about their future the inconveniences of the constant works – the houses that are left vacant are renovated to make more rooms and toilets – and of living with new tenants who are passing through – the contracts have a maximum duration of eleven months – and who do not always respect the neighbors’ rest. Rosario Castillo lives in one of these blocks. Since he was notified in 2021 that Vandor was the new owner, he has seen all the neighbors leave. She, the only one left in a block full of colivingshas refused to pack. Although her contract has expired, she continues to pay her rent each month to Vandor, who has sued her to get an injunction to evict her.
Vandor is also suing Elisabeth Lezama and her family, who live at the other end of the Eixample, in Calle Consell de Cent. For 27 years they have paid the rent every month without fail and their contract had always been renewed. Until Vandor arrived and told her, her husband and their two children that they would have to leave. Now they have been taken to court.
In the case of the Guerchouch family, they already had a first eviction date set for next Thursday, which was finally cancelled. On the other hand, on Carrer Concòrdia, in Poble-sec, Wendy Sosa just received a sentence this Thursday that fixes her eviction for February 17. He has lived in that block since 1998, now with his mother, sister and a nephew who has a 47% disability. “Where will we go if they kick us out?”, he asks, and underlines the impact that the transfer may have for his nephew. “You can’t move a child with autism around to make them hungry,” he says.
Money to leave
In an attempt to force collective bargaining, many of the residents of these Vandor blocks have rallied around the Tenants’ Union. For now, however, the fund refuses to start any general dialogue and seeks individual agreements with the neighbors. In fact, several witnesses explain that Vandor always tries not to have to wait for court rulings, which can take years.
Rubén Sospedra is one of the neighbors who still lives in the block of Còrsega 396 and who has a contract until the fall of 2026. He and his two flatmates were offered up to 15,000 euros if they left now. In Sosa, in Poble-sec, 10,000. Also in the case of Castillo and Guerchouch, the fund has been making them offers that have grown from the initial 6,000 euros to 30,000 euros. The same figure for which they polled Lezama in Consell de Cent. “I don’t want 30,000 euros; I want to be able to live in my flat”, he underlines.
The fact that the rent cap does not affect seasonal rent encourages funds like Vandor to bet on the cohabiting. With this loophole they can ask almost the same price for each room as what a tenant pays for the whole apartment. A glance at the website of CoTown — the company that together with Vanguard Student Housing manages all the estates of this investment fund — corroborates this. In Còrsega 396, on the border between the Eixample and Gràcia, in flats with five rooms, the smallest and cheapest costs between 700 and 800 euros. They are advertised with phrases like “They say good perfume comes in small bottles” or “This room has everything you need to sleep, work or present the best entrepreneurial project ever”.
At the time of publishing this report, Vandor had not responded to the request of the ARA so that they could give their version. On their website, however, you can see the 13 blogs they have in Barcelona. Although they also have properties in Madrid, Valencia and Bilbao, the Catalan capital is currently their main focus of action. When they explain their model, they note that the company “fully complies with current regulations”. For this reason, the residents are calling on the administrations to act. For the time being, this Thursday Parliament must finally approve the law to regulate seasonal and room rent, a tool that must prevent the sum of what is charged for rooms in a flat from exceeding the ceiling of the general rent.
“We will have been two years late”, regrets in conversation with ARA Enric Aragonès, spokesman for the Tenants’ Union, who emphasizes that when the rent price regulation was made they already warned that this would happen. With the new regulation to be approved by Parliament, Aragonès trusts that “operations like Vandor’s will be discouraged”. That is why he encourages the residents of these blocks or others in a similar situation to “not leave, to stand up and demand collective bargaining and renewal of contracts for everyone”.
However, he predicts some difficulties. Before someone ends up taking the regulation to the Constitutional Court to try to overturn it. Then, let the funds try to find a way around it. For this reason, he asks that the administration be very vigilant when it comes to monitoring compliance with the rule. In addition, in order to shield the tenants, he considers it essential to go ahead with the modification of the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) that the Union has brought to Congress.
