80% of the complaints to Mossos d’Esquadra and local police for occupation are of empty apartments of large holders or investment funds, according to data from the Catalan police collected by ACN. The deputy executive chief of Mossos, Alícia Moriana, admits that when the owner is of that profile, there is “some difficulty” in locating him and making a complaint, a key step for the agents to act.
According to the agent, occupations have decreased by around 18.1% between January and October of this year compared to last year, but frustrated attempts have grown due to “police action” and because the owners “are increasingly more aware.” Girona or Sabadell are some of the municipalities where complaints grew the most in 2024, especially of empty apartments, according to the town councils.
The number of reported occupations – adding both empty homes and first and second homes – reached 6,257 in 2024, an average of 17 each day. This is an increase of 8% compared to 2023 and the highest figure since 2020, when 6,458 were counted. This year, between January and October, the Mossos d’Esquadra and local police have registered 4,345, a thousand less than in the same period last year, which makes the Generalitat expect that the figure will be significantly below 2024.
In any case, the data only shows the events reported to the police, and not those in which the owner has decided to go directly to court or in which no action has been taken.
However, according to Moriana, attempted home invasions – to occupy empty apartments – and attempted home invasions – first or second homes -, the two types of criminal offenses that the data reflects to encompass the phenomenon of jobs, have been on the rise. After an uninterrupted increase since at least 2019, last year there were 2,057 frustrated attempts, almost double the number five years before. During the first ten months of 2025, 1,713 have already been counted, six less than in the same period as in 2024, so at the end of the year the numbers could equal or exceed those of last year.
In any case, data shows that, both this year and the previous two, nine out of every ten complaints of consummated occupations are usurpations and practically all of these, some 5,200 in both 2023 and 2024, were peaceful – only a hundred a year are violent. On the other hand, only half a thousand in each of these two years was a violation of domicile, that is, of first or second residences.
Moriana believes that the reasons for the increase in failed attempts and the drop in completed occupations are, on the one hand, “police action,” and on the other, “the sensitivity of the neighbors,” which allows for faster action by the security forces without having to wait for a long judicial process. In addition, prevention has increased among owners, who “put more physical protection measures in place.”
On the other hand, he believes that it has also affected Law 1/2023, which introduces urgent measures to address the inactivity of owners in cases of illegal occupation of homes with alteration of neighborhood coexistence. Thus, he explained, in cases of public disorder or criminal activities, if the owner is a large holder who does not report, the community of neighbors or the City Council can launch legal actions to obtain the eviction.
The legislation even contemplates sanctions of 3,000 to 900,000 euros for large holders who do not move in the face of an occupation and the council can temporarily acquire the property to use it for social housing.
“We had found that there are apartments that not even the investment fund itself was aware of who was the owner,” explains the agent, who adds that in some cases they give up starting a legal process due to the costs involved until the home is “financially interesting” to them.
For all these reasons, the Mossos have created a “property search engine” for internal use only for apartments owned by large owners, in which Sareb and several financial entities participate, in order to more quickly check if a property belongs to this type of owners and to have “a contact person to be able to activate the police and judicial appeal” through a complaint.
This is one of the actions that the force is carrying out within the framework of a plan specifically aimed at occupations linked to crimes. That is, those in which the home becomes “a marijuana plantation, a drug sales point, a reception point for stolen objects” or where criminals frequent who end up causing neighborhood conflicts and insecurity.
As for the “more social jobs”, for vulnerable people who have stopped paying their rent or mortgage, these do not fall into the plan and Moriana assures that “the police approach is totally different” in these cases.
The data show an increase in occupations between 2023 and 2024 of 8%, but at the territorial level the evolution is not uniform. Thus, Pla de l’Estany and Berguedà register the highest percentage growth, although with few cases. In absolute numbers, Vallès Occidental registered 218 more complaints last year than the previous year, 40%, up to 761. It is the second region with the highest incidence, after Barcelonès, which added 1,467 last year (-4.2% compared to 2023).
In Gironès, the year-on-year increase was 30%, for a total of 387, while Baix Empordà also stands out, with 39.7% more cases and 218 in total. At the other end of the ranking, some regions saw significant declines, such as Anoia (-41%) or Baix Camp (-17%). Altogether, 25 regions have increased and 16 have decreased, while neither in the Val d’Aran nor in Solsonès was any occupation reported in 2023 or 2024.
By municipalities, with data only from those with more than 10,000 inhabitants, the highest ratios in 2024 were Palafrugell (38 cases per 10,000 inhabitants) and Salt (37 cases). Canovelles, la Ràpita, Mataró and Calonge, Castelló d’Empúries, Platja d’Aro, Berga and Cunit also have more than 20 cases per 10,000 inhabitants. As for the demarcation capitals, Barcelona’s rate is noticeably lower (4.8), similar to that of Lleida (6.5) and Tarragona (7.1), while Girona shot up to a ratio of 21.7 cases.
